Restoring the Reputation of the British Domiciliary Homecare Industry
When a missed appointment can quite simply be a matter of life or death for some domiciliary patients; current concern surrounding carers cutting short visits, or worse, not attending at all, is wholly justified.
The recent, damning exposé of some of the UK’s biggest domiciliary care providers, by BBC’s ‘Panorama’ undercover investigation, has raised serious issues of trust in the industry. With increasing scrutiny, companies now must face up to what they can do to prove that curtailed care is not the industry norm and thanks to Mobile-e-Solutions and its latest technology, we can take steps towards re-shaping and restoring faith in Britain’s home care industry.
The programme, one of the most respected investigative shows on television, used secret filming to unveil problems in homecare providers entrusted to care for tens of thousands of loved ones across Britain – leaving clients, patients, carers and regulators, as well as care companies themselves, seeking reassurances that carers are doing their jobs properly.
The countless examples documented by Panorama, of carers squeezing-in as many visits as possible into small amounts of time, resulting in visits being rushed and those towards the end of the day even being missed; has caused outcry. With erratic attendance, problems occur in even the most basic domiciliary care, such as the provision of food or medication, leaving patients scandalously neglected. Public reaction has been highly critical because so many rely on home care workers to look after family and friends.
The harsh reality of the aftermath of the Panorama Special is that EVERY care provider, and not just those companies exposed by the investigation, now faces a difficult and uncertain future as consumers demand to know that care providers can still be trusted to administer high standards of care, on time, as required and as promised.
“Re-establishing the vital trust element”
With a shell-shocked industry asking ‘where do we go from here’, Mobile-e-Solutions believes it holds the key to rebuilding the industry’s integrity. The company plans to help restore attendance as a priority of domiciliary care with its mobile ‘Proof of Attendance’ technology that is able to provide real time information on the visits that carers and staff make, including proof of times they arrive and leave, together with details of work carried out.
Mobile-e-Solutions Managing Director, Mike Lister, said: “It is vital to re-establish the fundamental trust element upon which care provision is dependent.
With our latest mobile phone solution, care workers simply touch a tag inside the patients’ home with their mobile phone and our web database is instantly updated, proving when they arrived and when they left; along with options to notify of the type of work they did, of any incidents or on the client’s current general well-being.”
He added; “To further the duty of care to patients, we can also provide an Appointment Monitoring Service, which alerts managers when carers are late for appointments so that they can arrange cover and ensure that any attendance problems, such as those highlighted recently in the media, will never be repeated.
“Changes must be implemented for the sake of the patients; for the sake of companies’ reputations; and for the sake of the future of the domiciliary care industry.”
This future clearly lies with solutions such as mobile Proof of Attendance technology to ensure standards are kept and that our nation’s most vulnerable citizens receive the high quality, safe and dignified care they are entitled to.
For more information on Mobile-e-Solutions and how its mobile phone and ‘proof of’ technology can work for you and your business, please call Mike Lister on 0845 643 4898.
For further information or interviews, please contact:
Kara Rose from Kara Rose PR.
Tel: 07985 166480 or e-mail kara@kararosepr.co.uk