Satisfaction among older home care users declines

Satisfaction with home care services among pensioners has declined over the past three years, a government survey has found.

The poll of users in England aged 65 or over in 2008-9 found overall satisfaction and users’ views about key aspects of service quality had deteriorated slightly since a similar survey was conducted in 2005-6.

The NHS Information Centre-published survey, answered by a sample of users in each English council,

revealed that 58% of clients reported they were extremely or very satisfied with the service that they received, a fall of 1% since 2005-6.

It also found 84% of clients said that their care worker always or usually came at times that suited them, down from 86% in 2005-6, while perceived levels of communication by providers had also deteriorated.

A total of 30% of clients said they were always kept informed by their home care service provider about changes in the care they received while 12% said they were never kept informed of changes to their care, compared with 34% and 10% respectively in 2005-6.

Finally 61% of users reported that the care worker always did the things that they wanted done compared with 65% in 2005-6, while 1% said they never did the things they wanted done, which is unchanged from 2005-6.

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