Behind the scenes
Part of care that nobody sees, is what goes on behind the scenes to ensure people are safe.
Office staff on a typical day will be:
- Ordering stock
- Dealing with job applicants
- Organising training, interviews
- Handling visitors to the office
- Arranging rotas and holiday requests
- Doing a return to the Care Inspectorate
- Meeting with social work and Edinburgh Council
- Handling calls from staff, families and service users
- Handling timesheets, expenses and paying wages to staff
Here is what happened over and above, on just one day this week.
NHS call to confirm a staff member is Covid positive.
This triggered our welfare plan. Immediately the staff member is removed from the rota and we have to adjust all rotas to ensure everyone is supported.
Next, 2 office staff take covid tests to staff and service users in the community to check to see if they are positive.
Later that evening the NHS called to apologise that the test was in fact negative. This meant undoing all the changes we had made and informing staff and service users not to worry.
Staff member is unwell
Staff like all of us get ill. When this happens we need to cover their shift, which may mean changes to visits.
Service user is not at home when we visit
When we visited there was no answer, we called the police for a welfare check and found the flat empty. This led to the police looking for the service user in case they were in distress. Later that day we found them well, having forgotten to inform us they would be going out.
Service user passes away
During a visit a service user became unwell, emergency services were called, sadly they passed away. Our priority was the welfare of them and their next of kin.
All these incidents were unforeseen and when they occurred our main concern is the welfare of all staff and service users. As you can see, to protect people we must react quickly. This often means visits need to be changed which can be unsettling for service users and staff. Hopefully you can see that we never change visits unless there is an immediate need to do so, but when we do it is for your welfare.
Finally, at 11pm we stopped for the day.
