Comfort Call Reviews 

After my wife who has bladder cancer and a full bladder catheter together with a nephrostomy spent three weeks in hospital she was allocated Comfort Call for crisis care.The employees are doing their best but have too many calls to cover in too short a time frame.
Cleanliness and hygiene are paramount and all we ask at the present time is they attend between 8 am and 9.30 am to give her a much needed shower. As her spouse (aged 77) I am 24 hour unpaid carer for her. I do everything else yet Comfort Call are still unable to provide the one task asked of them . Social care in the community is broken and not fit for purpose. Last Saturday they finally arrived at 11.45am, yesterday 11.05am and today after an alleged "incident" the carer turned up at 12noon.At the moment whilst her mobility is limited we need to try to get her out but how can we possibly organise her day in this situation? Care in the community seems to be another growth industry aimed purely at profit for the principals heading up the company with little or no concern for the patients affected not indeed their own employees

Joke of a company destroying people's lives to make life easier for themselves

If I could give less than one star, I would. This is by far and away the worst company I have ever dealt with and to suggest that their core business is 'caring' is an absolute joke. The carers are all young, inexperienced people and totally ill equipped to deal with anything other than making a cup of tea and helping the client to get dressed. I've submitted complaint after complaint, that they do nothing to resolve. It's an absolute joke and I eventually reported them to the CQC for safeguarding issues (neglect). If you can obtain your care provision anywhere else, I would recommend you do so because this lot are truly awful and as much as they claim to welcome 'constructive feedback', you'll find they are not interested in changing or upping their game. In fact, if you even try to challenge the shoddy service, you're more likely to get a mouthful of abuse and a really beligerent attitude from the supervisor. Utterly vile

This company owes their employees especially if you say you are no longer interested in working with them. I have been pursuing my payment for over 2months now. I am being ignored over my own hard earned money, the money I worked for.

Please if you are a person of color, try to avoid working there. Their pay rates are trash, they don’t pay for mileage and even their team leaders are resigning because of the poor company culture.

I have a meeting with Comfort call and Gateshead council. Due to the deplorable care recieved on all aspects. If anyone has any stories good or bad would you mind contacting myself in messenger Pauline Hall.

Thanks

At first I thought comfort call was going to be my dream job before I went to uni, I’ve always been interested in nursing etc and I looked after my nana for a couple years when she developed dementia. The training all went great and my first day was slightly stressful but I got there. But then it all went downhill. I got poorly unexpectedly and had to make hospital appointments etc and I was told to rest up and not do any strenuous activities. However, when I was in hospital, bearing in mind I was in the worst pain I’ve ever felt, I was still receiving phone calls from them asking me to do a job! When I recieved my payslip I was even more shocked. I was told I would get 40p per mile and the money I got was 4p per litre! I was spending more than I was earning. Once I told them that if that was the petrol that I would be receiving I would not be able to continue in the job, I got an email saying “no problem. Can you bring in your phone, ID badge and uniform”. They aren’t professional in any way and I would avoid if you do not want to be stressed.

Dreadful! Dangerous! Staff in office don't write messages down so carers have no notes about changes to medication leading to safeguarding issues because client hasn't had meds. Told by manager they give double meds on next visit; GP horrified by this. 2 carers in particular had attitude problems eg told X she didn't need her meds and was going to have to sleep downstairs. Social Worker had to intervene by phoning the occupational therapist to find out what was in the falls assessment and nothing about sleeping downstairs. Refused to give meds because a carer had taken this off the notes on the care plan! GP phoned by carer behind families and X's back requesting antibiotics which actually weren't needed! No medical training so these decisions were wrong and another safeguarding issue. Same carer told X she was having a wet room fitted and X got so worried and confused because what was actually happening was a bath chair was being delivered. Given advice contrary to GP's advice so meds were not taken correctly. X rushed by a carer who 'didn't have time' but managed to find time for a 10 minute gossip with someone else outside family home. NEVER turned up at the time on the care plan and twice failed to turn up at all. Management lies, don't take messages and it's all about the money. Should never have taken on X as a client because they didn't have capacity but lied and tried to blame family by claiming they had made a 'quality assurance' phone call. No transparency as they don't leave notes or liaise with family. Told Social Services what X eats and it was completely untrue and Social Worker didn't have the information needed to review the care plan. 2 external agencies made social referrals about the level of care given because it lead to X having 2 falls when she was left unaided to cope with tasks Comfort Call were supposed to assist with.

They been great support my mam really well. Girls who come on the morning are fab. Tracey in office cannot do enough for you. So thank you

Service User
I had written a previous review thinking things surely couldn’t get any worse than they were then. OH BOY was I WRONG. My carers are 2 males for most calls now. I had no carers turn up to get me out of bed and my husband is in hospital. My son lives close by luckily he could get me up and my daughter came to wash and dress me. If I wanted family to do my care then why pay for a care company to look after me. My teatime call is meant to be 4/30 to 5 pm and carers turned up 2 different males at 5/50 .Then at 8pm instead of 10 pm for bed. Allowing I have my evening meals after my tea call. I’m 59 year old why would I be put to bed at 8 pm. I have full capacity and would rather upset someone than lie to them everyone who knows me will tell you the same thing. The staff in the office lie to you tell you they will sort a problem out or they will get back to you this NEVER happens. I’ve seen so many carers go through this company most don’t even past a month. The carers are rushed off their feet often working all day without a break for a drink or any lunch. The office will tell me they have spoken to my social worker and I have to accept things. I ring my social worker and she has no idea what I’m on about. Yet another lie. I can’t express enough how they will tell you one thing to get you to place your loved one in their care. They seem fine then change drastically. If you are placing a loved one in their care . If you do care about your loved one then this is not a company you should leave them with. Always read the reviews on a care company first. I am so disgusted in the care I’m given. I will get out of this company at the first chance I get and that time cannot come quick enough for me. This is my experience with this company and I know of others who are in the same boat. If they can’t treat their carers with respect and treat their service users even less so please do think carefully before choosing this company.

One of their workers is part of a terrorist organisation which uses violence and fear for political purposes. She has shown violent intent and behaviour, when I showed comfort call evidence of this they claimed to also support the organisation.

Service user: comfort call north tyneside: Communication is appalling by the office they say they will ring you back but never do, don't inform you if staff are running late or calls have been moved to different days/times got to watch them like a hauk as they don't tell you if they have shadowers with them they sly male carers in and don't inform you especially when they know you don't want male carers doing personal care, they tell staff they will tell us if staff want service users to know they are going to be late but they don't even ring us and let us know some carers are really good at the job. if a service user doesn't get on with a member of staff they don't resolve the issue and they don't answer the phone when you ring it takes several attempts to get through. New staff don't introduce themselves to you. Don't seem to care about the service users or staff they have the service users stressed to the core
and the staff run off their feet they tell the service user they will sort the issue out and promise to ring you back but they never do they say anything to shut us up there's no communication with in the office staff either rotas always change because they can't keep the staff and they always change our calls around just so they can fit more service users in but they tell you it's due to sickness but its not in my opinion sometimes it will be sickness but not all the time this weekend has been an utter nightmare . they don't want to understand clients problems and mess with our body clocks and don't care if they cause us pain they didn't even send anyone to help me a few weeks ago but they still told me someone would be here 6pm still no one turned up and they make clients wait far too long for the toilet ect they really don't care for the staff or clients they make a booo boo we suffer for it it has nothing to do with covid 19 as they were like this before they can blame it on covid all they want fact is its not covid at all they always make the problem the clients problem even though it has nothing to do with the clients they use the clients to get out of the situation or to claim they are sorting it out if they don't like what you have to say they hang up the phone on you they think they solve problems by making people have earlier bed times ect clients can be forced to take a stand for themselves they make our lives a horror story on a regular basis some clients sleep in their chairs because they
wont change their bed time back to what they had I don't even care what they think about my review its the truth and the truth hurts.

I wouldn't leave a dead cat at this place. They neglected my vulnerable mother, by not shopping for her (though they were paid to). I found her in her own mess more times than I can remember and the staff were rude and negligent. I have photos of the rotten food that they left for her and pictures of the faeces covered bed I found her in. They need to be prosecuted. Management is weak.

Girls were fab but inexperienced. Mum has latter stage dementia, challenging behavior and aggression. All were ill equipped to handle her. No journal for new carers to read so I had to be there to explain everything. This morning the girl didn't even come to right house so I got a call from the company to say she had been and couldn't get an answer. We have a key safe. She hadn't been. I have requested to the social worker we change companies.

This company became involved with my dad in September 2020 as my dad had been discharged from hospital with end stage heart failure, multiple organ failure second to shock.
He wanted to do end of life care at home the care was a little bumpy in the beginning, as young carers would come sit and giggle even brought a work colleague in during Covid witch wasn't allowed.
Over time care got good then bang refusing a dying man of his prescribed pain medication.
No update of care plan even though he has deteriorated and his needs have changed.
The care plan is in great detail but have yet to see a carer read it.
My dad was left with a urine stained bed, I had to leave a note for carers to change it, as unfortunately I myself have multiple sclerosis and was unable to do it.
The carers also took money from my farther as a Christmas gift.
Please if you're family member needs care do your research into companies before you make a decision.
My dad no longer trusts the carers and is wishing he was dead he only has weeks left. Family never get updated on his health. I have contacted CQC to help others in mine and my daughters situation as it is disgusting. Care should come before covering their own backs.

Consistent is not a word to associate with this company.
You ask for no more than 3 regular Carers to attend. Eg the same 3, week in week out. You receive, anything up to 7 different Carers over the week.
You ask for 9.30 and can still be sat waiting at 1pm for them.
You then ring them to find out where your Carer is. Only to find an answer machine on the other end.
Now I’m lucky. I don’t have dementia or Alzheimer’s, otherwise I would more than likely be freaked out.
Now I don’t blame the Carers at all. In fact 90% of them are a godsend and do a hard job under very difficult circumstances
The office however. Need to learn organisational skills and map reading
Pee up and brewery spring to mind

Inadequate level of care provided due in the most part to staff arriving to the call and not knowing what the call is for, therefore not providing food, medication, or support as needed. There are however a few good members of staff, it really does depend on who attends the call.