MIL does not live in the Hounslow area - and I understand that Hounslow deliver meals on a 7 day basis (the needs for a MOW service and to eat at the weekends being just as important to an elderly person, as during the week, I s'pose...). In her area they have frozen meals delivered on a Friday, for the weekend.It didn't work out as smoothly as I hoped. The frozen MOL are supposed to be delivered into her freezer ... to avoid the possibility that she leaves them on the side in the kitchen; they start to defrost, then she remembers to place the half defrosted meals in the freezer, herself. (oh, yes).The delivery was made when we were there on the Friday, and they didn't have the instructions to do the placing in the freezer bit. After some explaining, they did that for me. I later looked and found they had delivered the same meal for Saturday and Sunday (bit mean, really). The puddings were different, and there was nothing else in the freezer to confuse the issue.Next day when the care people came to cook, MIL did the confusing by starting off with, she was cancelling the cooking at weekends. Phone calls between us and the agency carer resulted in a cooked meal which MIL really enjoyed - she loves the hot meals - dee-lish-ous! She has a hearty appetite and loves the puddings! We have rung the MOW people to say how much she loves the food. Cost of MOW + a half hour care bill.On Sunday the carer must have asked MIL what she wanted, rather than following the instructions - cook and serve the MOW; make a sandwich for the evening, and after covering it, leave it in the fridge. Later telephone calls (and boy were there many of those over the weekend) and we deduced that the pudding was still frozen .. having been asked if she wanted the pudding MIL had probably said no, but with no means of cooking it herself, leaving it uncooked and frozen follows that chocolate teapot theory. Useless. MIL had later tried to eat it, as we found it with the lid off, still semi-frozen, in the fridge 2 days later. Oh, and the same sort of conversation must have gone on, over the sandwich, as there was none made. MOW + half hour care bill for a cooked main meal only...?Since the weekend a neighbour has stepped forward and will sort out a hot meal for one of the meals each day at the weekend, so we can ditch the freezer bit and the care agency worker. It is difficult in these situations as so much is on a goodwill basis, and the last thing we want to do is take advantage of a kind neighbour. But what would it be like without them? Yes of course we will make sure she is rewarded.MIL is very upset about anyone coming in at the weekend to cook, but she cannot cook herself. Her old cooker had bitten the dust and we replaced it with a modern version of the old one, only to find she has lost the skill of turning on the gas taps and lighting them. Hubby has been doing the cooking for the last x years. She turned on the gas, and left it on, unlit, and wandered off .. she turned the burner on, and eventually managed to light the burner, then wandered off leaving it alight, and on low, so it wasn't very obvious it was on .. her concentration to do a task is not very good, so all we could see were red warning flags. The gas supply to the cooker was switched off and we sought out other means of giving her a hot meal. She later 'let slip' that she used the grill to dry clothes in a hurry - she placed them across the top of the grill and lit the burners underneath. There is no going back when somebody tells you that, is there? "But we've always done it".The agency bill came for the Saturday, only. But the amount is a bit different to our expectations. Social services suggested it would be around £7 a half hour. The letter given to us at the initial setting up interview said there as an additional fee for the weekend, which made it £10 a half hour and the bill is for somewhere around £11.15 or so, I haven't got it to hand. Now that sort of money on top of the MOW price is pr-i-ttty steep, how on earth can people manage?
Sarah Felstead ● 7303d