An elderly woman was left without food and medication for three days after a company cancelled her care package. The care provider, whose website says it provides 'the help you need in the home you love', was forced to apologise and pay compensation after the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) upheld a complaint made against Proper Care (Cornwall) Ltd.
The company, based in Helston, Cornwall, was found to be culpable for the manner in which it ended the contract to provide the woman care. Proper Care (Cornwall) Ltd had to issue an apology to the woman and her daughter, while also paying them £300 compensation.
As reported by Cornwall Live, the report by LGSCO said the company had previously offered to apologise for not following its procedures in ending the contract and pay compensation. However the amount of compensation offered was just £5 - an amount which the ombudsman said was "very low".
The LGSCO said that Proper Care (Cornwall) was asked to provide care for the woman - identified only as Mrs Y - by a community psychiatric nurse who visited her. This was needed as Mrs Y’s daughter - identified as Mrs X - lived some distance away.
Mrs X was to pay for the care provided to her mother and Proper Care (Cornwall) contacted her by phone on November 24 to make arrangements. They said that they would sort the paperwork for the care package when Mrs X was next in the area in January.
The agency said that its usual procedure was to provide a written contract ahead of care starting but said that this had not happened in this case as it wanted to “help a family”. However, when payment was left outstanding for some of the care, the agency contacted Mrs X on February 9 and said that if she did not settle the invoices, then care would end on February 11.
Proper Care (Cornwall) said that Mrs X “did not make arrangements or notify us of any intention to pay”. It then contacted the community psychiatric nurse and told her that the care would be stopping.
The LGSCO report states: “The care agency's normal practice is to provide two weeks' notice of the termination of care. Without a contract, there is no way Mrs X would have been aware of this.
"In this case, the care agency said it told Mrs X on Wednesday that it would terminate care two days later if she did not pay the invoice. Mrs X’s recollection of the conversation is different.
"Mrs X says her recollection from that call was that care was not going to stop. Mrs X says there was no way that she would have agreed to care visits stopping, without making alternative arrangements as her mother normally received care at the weekend.
“Mrs X says she discovered late on the Monday that care had stopped on the Friday, because a medical professional phoned to tell her. Mrs Y was without medication and visits for three days.”
The care agency said that “its usual practice is to provide two weeks’ notice to terminate care. However, communication had broken down to such an extent that this was not enforced”.
Proper Care (Cornwall) admitted that its procedures were “were not followed to the letter” and added: “We are happy to apologise to Mrs X that they were not. We are happy to offer the sum of five pounds for her time and trouble in pursuing a complaint.”
The LGSCO said that the company was at fault as it had not provided Mrs X with a written contract. In its conclusion, the ombudsman said: “The care agency has offered Mrs X £5 compensation.
"This is a very low amount, considering that Mrs Y was without care for three days. She was not checked on for three days to ensure she had meals or medication.
“The care agency knew she was vulnerable and that it was unlikely new carers could be sourced that quickly. Luckily, no permanent harm came to Mrs Y, but the knowledge that her mother was not checked for three days caused considerable distress and anxiety to Mrs X.
"Mrs X has explained they now have a new care arrangement, which is working well. Mrs X paid the invoice in full after the care agency employed debt collectors.”
The ombudsman said that Proper Care (Cornwall) should apologise to Mrs X for its failure to send her a written contract and written notice that it was terminating the contract. It also ruled that the agency should pay £300 compensation to Mrs X for the “distress and inconvenience caused to her”.
David Carmichael, owner/manager of Proper Care (Cornwall), said that he had apologised and paid the compensation to Mrs X. He said that it had been very difficult to provide a contract to Mrs X as she did not visit her mother during the time the agency was providing care.
He said: “I emailed the daughter a contract and we realised that the bills were not being paid. When we sent her the bills, she quibbled that the staff were not with her mother for the full length of time.
“Her mother had advanced dementia and she would often not recognise our staff and saw them as intruding on her. Her mother’s condition was a worsening one and was never really getting any better.
"We never got to build any rapport with her. It was a worthwhile proposition getting us in there, but the old lady was having none of it and the daughter wasn’t having any of the fact that our staff were not spending the right length of time and didn’t pay the bill.
"Sometimes my staff were only there for 10 minutes. Eventually we said we can’t carry on like this, we have to pay our staff and she was not paying us. We invoiced her for the hours we were commissioned for but she still wasn’t having it.”
The agency owner said that he did not consider that Mrs X’s mother was at risk and said that she continued to receive support from the community mental health team. He said that due to Covid restrictions in place at the time, Mrs X did not visit her mother and so he was unable to give her a physical contract. Mr Carmichael said that he had apologised and paid the compensation ordered by the ombudsman as he wanted to “draw a line under it”.
