Home Care Service not ready for everything!

1.18.19pm GMT Thu 27th Nov 2008

The call to Home Care Providers to plan for emergencies issued recently by

Hertfordshire Resilience, the county's Emergency Planning Partnership, has

drawn a wry comment from County Councillor Nick Hollinghurst.

Nick is the Liberal Democrat Lead on Adult Care at Hertfordshire County

Council.

Commenting on this call for Home Care Providers to be ready for

emergencies, he said: 'New contracts were issued to a number of Home Care Providers at the

beginning of this year. Since then there has been crisis after crisis as

several companies failed to cope even with the predictable problems in

taking over new contracts. Elderly and disabled people were left without

care over and over again as care workers failed to turn up. At one point

nearly half the county was affected, with some companies having their

contracts suspended and others working to corrective Action Plans as they

struggled to put things right.

And this shambles occurred during mild weather, with no epidemics nor

anything much out of the ordinary! How they will manage in a real emergency

I shudder to think!'

He concluded:

'Now, over 9 months later, they are at last getting a grip. But to be truly

resilient they really need to develop greater capacity and robust

management. Not all of the Home Care Providers let us down - but those that

did certainly need to heed this latest wake-up call!'