THE BASILDON CARELINE STORY
(I took this story off my diary pages as it was rather long)
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Sunday, 28 April 2002. I must be a sad and lonely soul to relate this little story - but, here goes! (and nobody laugh - bear with me - there is a moral point).
I am in sheltered housing and most people get a call each morning (to see if they're alive?). After the visit to
"FRAIL, EIGHTY YEAR OLD PENSIONER HAS HEART ATTACK AFTER FINDING DECOMPOSED BODY OF FRIEND AFTER IT HAS BEEN LAYING FOR TWO WEEKS"
I spent some twenty years in management services which involved internal audit of systems (I am a Fellow of the Institute). On checking the matter with the warden, I saw the system used. A more fallible system I have never seen! It is my professional judgement, that on the evidence that I have seen, that there is a potentially FATAL flaw in the system of adding residents to the call sheets and the following through of the sheets.
I have sent an email to the manager of Basildon Careline, drawing her attention to this diary page. I have used this approach as I have no confidence in the usual methods. It may be said , "You have to put all complaints in writing." If that is so, why was I not told that, when it was agreed to get the manager to confirm my complaints in writing?
But, these entries are now the 'Sword of Damocles', in that it would be devastating if a failure did occur in the future and they were used as evidence. These pages also eventually get onto most search engines.
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Wednesday, 08 May 2002. The Careline problem has been resolved. As we are finding out, and accepting, these days, it is not an individual's fault that causes a problem. It is usually a 'system error'. Recently there have been the instances of rail crashes and medical errors that, when analysed, show that the systems do not 'fail safe'. This is what happened here and plans have been made to avoid a similar occurrence.
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Tuesday, 14 May 2002. I had a visit today from the manager of Basildon Careline, and we went through the steps used to enter a resident into the call system. It is a manual system and relies on carrying forward manually recorded information. Not an easy system for which to set up a formal procedures manual. We left it for her to talk through the problem with her staff and the warden. I, for my part, am happy in the way the matter has been resolved.
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Wednesday, 15 May 2002. Had a chat with the warden today about the Careline problem. We managed to come to a few conclusions and develop a better way to manage the 'no call' list. Took me back a while to when I was at work - and I was good at it!
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