to be incredulous at this..

[gremlindolphin]

...we are generally very happy with the care provided to my Mum at her Nursing Home but I find it symptomatic of the current problems in both the food and caring industries that when she asked for a boiled egg for breakfast recently, she was brought an egg in a cereal bowl because they don't possess any egg cups!

We have now provided an egg cup for her but today when she asked for a boiled egg for breakfast, the catering assistant said she wasn't sure how to cook a boiled egg but would go and see what she could do! She returned with a boiled egg, accompanied by one of the main cooks to see if the egg was cooked - it was extremely hard boiled. (not at all suitable for the dipping of bread soldiers!)

Mum asked the Cook if he really didn't know how to boil an egg to which he confirmed he didn't. This is an experienced member of the catering staff in charge of catering for the daily dietary requirements of 30 elderly residents - wtf?!

Basic skills and common sense are obviously not being passed on/taught and to my mind are resulting in the mess we are in today.

I find the turnover of staff in my DM's nursing home is massive.
The place has only been open 6 months, so everything is new. The communication between staff is shocking. My DM can't communicate and is totally paralysed, this is her 3rd nursing home in 3 years.
DM can't feed herself & can only just about use a beaker if held to her lips.
I have arrived many times to find a cup & saucer infront of DM & sometimes a cold meal.when I ask a carer why??? the reply is usually " oh I didn't know your mum couldn't eat or drink" WTF!!!
The night staff didn't even read what meds mum was on, so she ended up in A&E as they hadn't given the epilepsy meds.
There is no communication at all.
There was one member of staff, a nice man, not trained in anyway to deal with mums personal care, but he tried. He then told me he was an alternative therapist & thought he could use his "skills" on the people in the care home. I later received a bill from him for 4 unauthorised treatments on my mum for £200!!!
Mum can't speak.
The food is shocking, God knows what animal is being served up.
All of this for the princely sum of £1200 a week....I kid you not....

Thats horrible chickydoo.

When the newspapers were full of the ceiling to nursing home fees proposal I kept getting cross as they were stating weekly fees of about £600 - that is not what you pay here for anything decent!

It is hard having someone you love in a nursing home but mum's needs due to ill health could not be met in her own home or mine and I am happy with the care she is given which allows me to enjoy the time we spend together.

My thoughts go out to those of you who are not happy with the care being provided to loved ones.

My egg crisis is light hearted and I know there are bigger issues at play.

xx

Although I agree with the poster saying that even if you are paid NMW you should do your job properly it is true that part of the problem is that care workers are only paid NMW.

You pay peanuts, you get monkeys. I worked (fairly briefly) in HR for a company employing lots of low grade care workers. Although there was a core of good committed workers I would say that the majority were people who had various 'issues' that meant that these jobs were all they could get - after all if you're fairly hard working, intelligent and competent you're not going to stay in a minimum wage job for much longer than you had to.

The problems we often came across were suspected drink and drug problems leading to poor attendance, unreliability and poor performance when they were there. People with mental health issues which made their performance poor and their reliability and performance sketchy. People with terrible personal problems and chaotic lives who let this affect their work to a massive degree. People with extremely poor English who had problems relating culturally to the people they were looking after. People who just plain didn't give a shit and were lazy.

You may say get rid of them but the problem is with wages at that level you're only going to recruit more of the same. You're never going to be able to recruit enough good people at wages that low when an army of them is needed.

I didn't stay long because it was soul destroying and awful taking calls when someone had missed a day because they'd been arrested for drink driving or their boyfriend had dumped them for the fourth time in 3 months so they were refusing to come in etc, etc, etc and knowing people were depending on them for basic care.

To be honest an egg not in the proper receptacle or too hard boiled is not really that much of an issue when you see what goes on in these places.

Chiggers you sounds lovely. x

BridgetBidet I know how lucky we are. Although as someone else said why should the lowest common denominator determine what I should expect for my Mum?

I just find it strange that someone who doesn't know how to boil an egg can be responsible for feeding 30 people day in day out.

There are lots of issues with the care system and common sense and basic skills seem a good place to start.

Unfortunately staff are not allowed to serve soft boiled eggs in residential care anymore. All down to that silly politician who ranted on about salmonella in eggs

CombineBananaFister

Both my grandmothers ended their days in care homes, in different parts of the country. Both got excellent care.

In one a carer had got a nail art set for Xmas and any resident who wanted soon had manicured nails. This was not part of her job, just something she did that she thought would be fun.

Some of the carers at these homes also came to the funerals, in their own time.

gremlin As another poster has said I'm not sure they are allowed to serve soft boiled eggs any more. Although that can be got round with duck eggs instead of hens.

You can get a timer that you put in with the eggs and it plays a tune when the egg is ready.

Or you can get an electric egg boiler

www.eggboilers.co.uk/soft_boiled_egg_cooker.html

Chiggers - I am clearly naive about the prices but it still seems such a lot to me.
sashh - am not careworker bashing, I know some of them work incredibly hard and go over and above what is needed. I'm still nervous though because there are so many nightmare stories and what if we pick the wrong one? I'm glad to hear you got excelent care at yours.
I still see where OP is coming from though, she's talking about the expectations of a 'cook' not a careworker. Health and safety aside surely they should know basic cooking?

I would be very wary at the alarm being disconnected.

My Mum's alarm cord was tied up so she couldn't reach it. She died after her lungs filled with fluid and she drowned. I can't even think about her last moments after 14 years because it's too upsetting. She was only 52.