HaH .. message to say I was 47th in the queue holding!!!!!

[Neonkitty59]

Yes, I didn;'t wait ... this was Friday afternoon and I would think each call before me would last 3-4 minutes so that's a long time to hold on. No thanks. HaH been chasing me about a delivery they think I need but I don't. I thought it was my other med they were trying to arrange early for me. They phoned me today .. Sunday .. and when I said that I had tried a few times during the week to be in touch but couldn't hold and told him the message said I was 47th in the queue .. the guy laughed a little. I told him that was rather unacceptable by anyone's standards but realised it wasn't his problem, but it is someone's. This is just too stressful for people who are needing to speak to someone urgently.

[hatshepsut]

Do compain in writing to the MD.

Otherwise this nightmare will go on. Keep copies, and if no satisfactory reply, comlain to health board/MP

[Neonkitty59 in reply to hatshepsut]

Yes, I will keep anything I do business like and likely won't complain until I have my next delivery! Providing I can get through although they have promised to phone on 8 April to ascertain I have started a new med given at hospital so no longer require the Humira.

[net2012]

I had a phone call today too from HAH!

[Neonkitty59 in reply to net2012]

Trying to catch up on a back log. The call was frustrating as he cut himself off but then phoned again but he wouldn't listen to me at first until I said .. Please listen .. please do not arrange to deliver any more Humira!!!! (I am due to have Rituximab soon so will need to arrange those unused to go backl )Before HaH got their problems, I used to speak to the same guy all the time and there was never an issue. Seems they are trying to do some things to help alleviate problems by phoning up on Sundays (I don't mind this .. was just surprised) but how on earth anyone can be expected to wait when they are 47th in a queue.

[Paula-C]

I rang them last week to arrange my delivery. I kept trying in the morning and both numbers I have got were engaged (0ne for MTX the other for Enbrel). I tried again late afternoon and got through and was put on hold listening to their record message. I have free 0845 numbers with my phone package so I put the phone on speaker and sat watching the TV. Finally after 50 minutes the recorded message stopped and I heard a ringing tone, at last I thought I'm finally going to speak to someone......NO...after a few seconds I was cut off!!!!

The next morning I phoned at 8am and was only on hold for a few minutes and finally got to speak to someone. Drugs hopefully are arriving tomorrow. It's really not good enough, I read three forums regarding RA and lots of people are reporting problems. They are causing unnecessary worry and stress to people.

Paula

[Neonkitty59 in reply to Paula-C]

Paula, that is exactly what I have done before .. put on speaker phone and do something else but not holding on that long if I am paying the bill. I had similar to you when I phoned at 4.30 one afternoon ... and held for just under half an hour then a few mins before 5.00pm was transferred to a message to say they had closed!!! Yes, I did say a rather naughty word. I think they may work longer than 5pm now. This was last year. I have had mixed success with early am but think that is likely to be the best bet. Although I knew it wasn't the young guy's fault today I could tell in his voice when I said I would not hold if I was 47th in a queue .. he wasn't interested, but they should ensure all their staff have have better response to patients' comments. I wasn't rude .. just pointed out it isn't acceptable to wait so long, and the guy I got today should not just dismiss it. It is causing untold stress to people I agree. Julie

[AuroraB]

Been struggling for a few days to try and get through to this company- usually starting in the high 50s in their phone queues -and when I get to the low 20s in the queue I get cut off. So frustrating.

[Neonkitty59 in reply to AuroraB]

Hope you have the free numbers on your phone like Paula. Much too long to have to wait.

[Patientsfriend]

Update on their official website;

March 2014

As you may be aware, Healthcare at Home has experienced a disruption in some deliveries over the past few weeks due to our logistics partner having IT issues. As a result, some deliveries have been made late and our online delivery tracker for patients has not been working. Whilst this has only affected a small proportion of our patients, we have received a surge of incoming calls from patients requesting delivery time updates. At times this has meant that patients have been waiting a long time in call queues and occasionally found the call centre numbers engaged.

Although we have now resolved the original IT issue, there remains the possibility that some deliveries over the coming weeks may be affected as we resolve some residual issues. In the meantime, we have brought in extra resource so that we can resume a normal delivery service as soon as possible. We have also expanded our call centre to manage more calls with our patients and have a team dedicated to responding to emails.

The vast majority of patients are receiving their deliveries on time and are unaffected by any disruption. Patients do not need to do anything at this time, as we are contacting all our patients as normal to organise their deliveries.

If you have an urgent need to speak to the team please contact your normal customer support team or email us at [e-mail].

We aspire to provide an efficient and caring service and we very much regret that we have not been able to provide some deliveries.

[Neonkitty59 in reply to Patientsfriend]

Sounds like they have real problems ... hope their plans to alleviate them really do work. I am sure they don't want to be perceived as inefficient. They used to be excellent so a shame to be going pear shaped. Let's hope for a turnarond for all our sakes. Thanks for the message upload. Has anyone had good response with the email approach?

[Hidden in reply to Neonkitty59]

I have tried on a few occasions emailing and as yet five months after the first email was sent other than an acknowledgement automated response have heard nothing- really not impressed and they have been having issues since October and still they have not resolved them. I have no idea who my nurse is or who my contact at H@H.

[Neonkitty59 in reply to Hidden]

The contact/nurse should have been in your HaH folder which was sent to me before I started my HaH meds. Did they not give you this, Poppy?

[AuroraB in reply to Patientsfriend]

I saw this too on their website - noted that they had not put the date of this release up - just March which I thought was poor. if the current atrocious phone service is with their "expanded call centre" I shudder to think what it must have been like before.

[net2012]

I have been ok with them so far touch wood. Was just a normal call asking how how Enbral I had left and arranging new delivery. Was surprised to get a phone call from them on a Sunday though.

[Neonkitty59 in reply to net2012]

Surprise wasn't it?! .. I was taken aback too!

[allanah]

Same problems here, wanted to return Humira as I am changing to infusions. Still I reply , so took some advice on here and just put them in my sharps bin. Maybe NRAS should help us out again as the statement patients friend put was released when NRAS contacted them on our behalf.

[Victoria-NRAS Partner Moderator NRAS in reply to allanah]

Hi Allanah

Just to make you aware, we have been in touch with H@H about this. I know they've had IT problems recently as well as a change of delivery provider, which has set things back for them. They have assured us that they are increasing their call centre staff to deal with the higher influx of calls, but I know this is still affecting a lot of people at the moment. We are awaiting further updates from H@H and will put a post on here as soon as we have something more substantial to report.

Kind regards

Victoria

(NRAS Helpline)

[allanah in reply to Victoria-NRAS]

Good it's nice to know nras are battling in the background x

[Neonkitty59 in reply to Victoria-NRAS]

I feel they are genuinely tryng to do all they can and it just seemed a shame as they were such a great service until recently. If they are phoning Sundays then they are serious to remedy the problems. Thank you for your message and for enquiring. My original post was just to see if other people were getting that too and if 47th in the queue was unusual these days.

[net2012]

Think it may have been a surprise for them too Neon Kitty as I had a mouthful of Sunday Roast when I answered the call lol

[Neonkitty59 in reply to net2012]

LOL Net ... no Sunday lunch for the HaH phone staff I was dozing and was a bit taken aback when I realised it was HaH. Well done to them though for increasing working hours/staff to try clear the backlog of calls.

[Esteratsky]

Hi Neonkitty59 ~ I have been on Embrel for about 15 years now. Up until Xmas 2013 was injecting myself 25mg twice a week and then asked for my Consultant to change to the automatic Micro Pen 50mg once a week. Much easier and less painful. It was during this changeover somehow HaH lost the plot, they sent a letter apologising for late delivery for the Pen which should have been last week Jan.2014 but nothing arrived, waited another week nothing (it's a good job I had a stock of the 25mg manual syringes) I finally got 2 pens second week of February at the beginning of the week and a further 2 more at the end of the same week. I usually get a phone call every 3rd week to arrange a delivery for the next month but for March they missed and I tried several times to phone all the various numbers on their site over a period of 2 days without managing to speak to a human being. On the 3rd day in desperation I spoke to their Media Dept threatened to report to the BMA. They apologised and said that they would put a message onto the relevant department. I also spoke to my Hospital who dispensed the prescription who in turn tried to contact HaH without any luck. Within 2/3 hours I received a text message from HaH to say that my delivery would be effected on Monday the 24th and wonders of wonders the Driver arrived just before 1:30pm today!!!! Once again I asked why does HaH have to handle this prescription and once again ~ all down to costs!!!!!

I wish you better luck with your future deliveries through this company.

[Neonkitty59 in reply to Esteratsky]

Sorry for all your stress, Ester. Fully understand as my hospital pharmacy and HaH had dispute last April about sending/receiving my script for starting Enbrel. Had to wait an additional three weeks and it as h*ll on my joints. It was actually HaH who took it on themselves at managerial level to chase the hospital pharmacy for me last year. This is why I said they were so good before, until their recent problems but I am sure they can be efficient again.

[Esteratsky in reply to Neonkitty59]

Hi Neonkitty59, am so glad that your delivery problems are being resolved, I hope mine will too. All my best wishes to you.

[Patientsfriend]

Just to add;

Healthcare at Home Customer service staff are now working 7 days a week, and up until 8/9 pm Monday to Friday at the moment to try and resolve things.

I have also been advised that they now deliver at least 5 days(6 in some areas) to all of England and Wales and most of Scotland and Northern Island.

It does seem like they really genuinely are trying to fix things.

[Neonkitty59 in reply to Patientsfriend]

Yes I think they really are and I feel genuinely sad that some people will have to take the flack on the phones etc for things that are not their fault and beyond their control. Let's hope they can really turn it around fast. I was polite but said it was just too long to wait.

[Isla]

I was due two deliveries today from HAH between 8.20 to 10.20.( the treatment tracker really good) One for myself and one for my husband. Always try to arrange them together. Husbands arrived on time,but no enbrel for me. Have tried lots of time to get through to them on the phone with different phone numbers only to be 50TH in line.

The story continues at 5.50pm a second delivery arrives with my injections,Luckily I was in.(Thank God).

I have found out that HAH have been taken over by MOVIANTO an American company about 6 weeks ago

Watach this space!!!!!

[Patientsfriend]

Isla

Healthcare at home haven't been taken over, although they are now in partnership with Movianto.

This was confirmed on the official website in October;

hah.co.uk/media-centre/late...

[Hidden]

I was number 72 in the queue on Friday at 8.45 am!!!!!

[Neonkitty59]

Oh my . .Fruity!! I was at hospital today and chatted to my biologics sisters who were concerned and said they knew of major problems but not such queues. They had heard of extra efforts to reduce it also.They thought my 47th was bad let alone 72nd, and said even 7th would be quite a wait. Let's hope theHaH Sunday sessions phoning customers can bring down the volumes. Hope you can get through soon. xx

[Neonkitty59]

I discovered who my persistent landline caller was the past two days whilst I as in bed .. HaH!! Well ten out of ten for trying. The Humira account ... trying to arrange delivery? I told them three weeks ago I was stopping this and wouldn't require any more and the guy said he would ensure that was noted!! This poor woman on the phone today was flummoxed and so was I as she had my surname way off too!! I will ask my rheumy to check if a letter has gone to HaH to stop Humira but HaH said it is on hold now until they hear. I also want my rheumy to confirm MTX is still required just in case that gets cancelled too, but it is a separate team/account at HaH and it was delivered on Friday so hope all is still OK there. Seems some people at HaH are working so diligently . .this woman phoning me on my mobile at 6.30pm and she was very apologetic.

[roy_batty in reply to Neonkitty59]

Hello - I don't know if you're aware HaH have a new website hahsupport.co.uk and a new customer service number 0333 103 9499. This went live yesterday. I've had deliveries at 10.30pm, and calls at 7.30am. They do keep odd hours...

[Sonia79]

Hello, has anyone considered taking these guys to court over the breac of their duty of care? maybe then, they will make changes?