A COUPLE who have had more than 100 different carers since the beginning of the year have spoken out at their dismay with Plan Care’s ‘abominable’ service.
Patricia Reed, 78, of Weston Turville suffers from advanced multiple sclerosis combined with bowel complications and has been wheelchair bound for 32 years.
She therefore requires two carers to visit her home, four times a day, to tend to her needs such as being lifted out of bed and given help in dressing.
But her husband Cyril claims the carers working for Bucks County Council’s contracted care firm Plan Care are not fulfilling their responsibilities, with late arrivals, careless mistakes, and constant assigning of new carers to their case.
“The service from Plan Care is absolutely disgraceful, atrocious and abominable,” he said,
“We have had 102 different carers since January. Each carer has to be briefed by my wife as to her needs and where things are.
“Over the past 32 years we’ve had many care companies and have never had this trouble.
“Obviously changes are inevitable, but this is terrible.
“Also, only one carer has been turning up rather than two, which has led to the strained handling of my wife.
“There’s only so much I can do when I am 80 years old with a weak back and prostate and bone cancer.
“Thank heavens for The Bucks Herald. With their continuing exposure of this fiasco they have served us victims proud and given us hope for a better future.
“They have highlighted the shortcomings of this company very well indeed, and I hope they continue to do so until Plan Care is booted out or brought into line.
“The service has been appalling since day one. However, we accepted there may be ‘teething problems’ and assumed improvements would follow – they never did. They simply went from bad to worse to atrocious.
“It’s not entirely down to the carers –a lot of the time it’s the company’s fault.
“However a lot of the carers show such a lack of concentration or interest in their roles.
“They also turn up late regularly, meaning Pat can spend as much as 14 hours in bed.
“She has no movement in bed, but experiences cramps as the hours pass and the medication wears off.
“Plan Care either doesn’t care about Pat’s care plan is or doesn’t fully understand what a care plan is.”
Mrs Reed, who must use a catheter, or urinary vessel, has also experienced issues with the way in which the carers have handled her medical care.
She claims they have even been known to leave open the tube, causing her urine to spill on the floor.