A CARE firm at the centre of mass home care complaints in Aylesbury is ploughing £5,000 a week into making improvements, say company chiefs.
Alongside other improvements, Plan Care has also made a plea with Bucks County Council, which contracts the firm, to scrap many of its 15-minute appointments allocated by the authority to service users which have been blamed by the vulnerable as insufficient and a major part of the issue.
Complaints first began flooding into The Bucks Herald about domiciliary care firm Plan Care in February, when the council first suspended its contract with the company.
The issues then arose again in November and the county council has now been forced to transfer 50 Plan Care clients to other external and internal providers – at a compensation cost of around £300,000 to the firm.
In a bid to improve the service, the company has now brought in extra senior and office staff and is making extensions to its Aylesbury offices and team of care workers.
“It is very much in our interest to get things right,” said director of personnel and training at the firm, Julian Hutchings.
“Around 50 service users, equivalent to about 4-500 hours of care, have been taken off us and given to our competitors while we improve our service.
“We’re looking to have got things right within three months and besides, the other providers, while they are charging the council more than we would be, will only provide the service for a certain amount of time without a contract.
“While making these improvements, we have also put a request into Bucks County Council to reduce the number for 15-minute slots in which we can visit service users.
“While we entered into this contract with our eyes open, it is clear that these short appointment times just are not adequate – care workers and service users would both like longer appointment times.
“Care is, of course, not an exact science – someone who is bedridden requires more care than someone who is more able-bodied, for example.
“It’s our contract, so it’s our problem, but it requires more staff and makes it more likely for us to be late to appointments when we are travelling across the Vale, which then leads to more complaints.
“This is another reason why the majority of our problems have been in rural areas such as Winslow.
“Home care is not a perfect service – it should be, but it isn’t.
“Appointments should never be missed, or attended late, but they are – and that is something else we seek to improve on.
“Things are getting better, they are not at the standard they need to be yet, but they will be.
“The fact that things have gone wrong within Plan Care are down to a number of things, but it was I that took my eye off the ball, which resulted in things not being run properly.
“We need to restore people’s confidence in us – that includes service users, staff and the council.
“It is my job to ensure things are run smoothly – that hasn’t been happening in Aylesbury and I am the person who is responsible.”
Patricia Birchley, Buckinghamshire County Council’s cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said: “We continue to work closely with Plan Care to address the issues service users have raised.
“Plan Care have only recently raised the 15-minute allocation time as an issue with us, but we are aware this does cause problems for some clients and we have been proactive in addressing it.
“I have written to David Lidington, keeping him updated of the situation and have issued legal notice to Plan Care that provision must improve.
“In the meantime, we will work closely with them towards rectifying the current position and our focus remains on making sure adequate and dignified care is provided for our vulnerable elderly residents.”