The review

My new care providing company believes in 3-monthly reviews. Friday was the day for it.

I was bemused by the questions. It had dawned upon them they hadn’t done the risk assessment or provided me with a printed care plan yet.

So I was asked where you switched the gas, electricity & water off. We’ve lived here for nearly 14 years now. I’ve never thought about how to switch the gas off. All I could do was suggest where the gas meter was & assume the tap was nearby. As for the electricity I know where the breaker switches are. Water I was fairly confident about.

As for what is important to me in life. That’s a wide question & I think I would probably answer differently every day, so much depends on mood. My only conclusion was the Fox, family & friends. If the question is what is important to me in the service they provide that’s something very different – efficiency, punctuality & courtesy.

Other questions include how many plugs do we have in an adapter. Do we leave all the doors closed at night? Are the keys to unlock the window easily accessible? Is anything blocking the access doorways? I thought she would have noticed that since she’d just come in through the front door.

She was here for half an hour with such questions. The idea seems to be they can then answer any questions concerning my medical history if I should be rushed into hospital & deal with any domestic emergency should they be in the house at the time. They also needed more personal info of interests etc in case they had to send someone other than Linda so they would have something to guide them on possible topics of conversation.

I’m left amazed everyone doesn’t have to go around with a folder outlining their life history & interests to hand over to strangers whenever they meet socially, at parties etc. Instead we ask new acquaintances questions & feel our way into friendships. What a waste of time!