As a nationwide, care provider of over forty years, we specialize in 24/7 care support.
For patients, especially older patients, a week or more at home with care support will encourage
independence and offer confidence, especially if the person has been in hospital for many weeks.
Despite contacting elderly care wards, elderly discharge teams, and older people's medicine units, no one
calls us to ask for further details.
Getting availability information to help with bed-blocking is difficult. Very few elderly care wards,
discharge teams and social work offices have email addresses for instant information, so they are unable
to pass it on either to other professionals or to families.
There are telephone numbers occasionally but these can mean a non-answer or a long delay.
A reason has been put forward that a care provider is not on a ‘list’ so cannot be used. Many of
these lists are out of date and often, when given to a family, only have the name of the providers but
not the care support they are offering.
Result – the beds get blocked!
Nobody wins and it is a situation that needs to be updated and more responsive.