Rushed carers going back to finish duties in own time

UNDER-pressure carers have claimed they are being forced to go back to patients' homes in their own time because they no longer have enough time during the day.

Unions and care workers today said that the allocated time slots given to them were too short to carry out all the duties required in elderly people's homes – including administering medication.

They said carers often had to return to homes at the end of their shifts to finish tasks they should have had time to do earlier.

The Evening News revealed on Tuesday how home helps claimed they no longer had enough time to prepare a freshly-cooked hot meal for old people after the time they could spend with each person was cut from an hour to 30 minutes.

Now it has emerged that even the 15-minute medication slots are too short as carers are being given more responsibilities.

Marlyn Tweedie, Unison's health and social care spokeswoman, said that previously pharmacists would prepare all medication for patients in a dosette box and carers would simply have to administer the pills, which were already measured out.

However, she said pharmacists were increasingly unable to take on the extra workload and carers were being left to work out the dosage of medication and dispense it themselves, without being given any more time to do it.

Ms Tweedie said: "Carers are having to do more medical tasks which is more time-consuming, especially as it can include putting in eye drops or creams.

"Some of the elderly can be on 15 or 16 tablets which again takes a lot of time to give them all out.

"Carers' workloads have virtually doubled, with 14 or 15 people on a schedule whereas before they would have about eight.

"What Unison is saying repeatedly is that the amount of tasks are impossible to do in the amount of time given and this impacts on staff health and wellbeing and service delivery."

Ms Tweedie added that unexpected "emergencies" can often take place when a carer arrives at an elderly person's home, which takes them away from their normal duties.

She said: "You can get to somebody's house and they have fallen and you have to deal with that.

"More often than not if you phone up to ask for someone to cover your next job, the organiser doesn't have anybody so sometimes people are doing it in their own time."

The time which carers can spend in each home was scaled back in 2007 as part of a money-saving shake-up of home care provision.

One Edinburgh carer, who asked to remain anonymous, said there were frequently problems with the time slots for both preparing meals for elderly people and administering medication.

She said: "We do report it and sometimes we are allowed longer but not always.

"More often than not we either run late, putting stress on other carers, or even go back on our own time for which we can be sacked.

"It will get worse but its going to take some poor soul to get malnutrition through us not being able to check they've actually eaten before someone does something."

David Griffiths, chief executive of ECAS – a city-based group supporting disabled people – added: "It's very unfair for the carers, as well as the cared for, to be put in a position where they are not finishing a job to the standards they wish and but they have to leave."

A council spokesman said only 1.7 per cent of home care packages in the last year have involved visits of 15 minutes and that if staff were having problems they should report that to their manager.

He added: "The administering of medication is one part of a very important but usually wider care package that delivers a broad range of support, normally over several hours.

"The level of support needed varies from one person to the next with some requiring only a reminder to take medicines and others needing more help.

"We have very robust procedures in place and our staff get full training to ensure that this important task is carried out safely."