Saturday, January 8, 2011

Glasgow Labour Council of shame ALEO, Cordia leaves OAP, 94, bedridden by no-show carer twice, Fergus Chambers on hefty salary, £132,500-a-year














Dear All

What does it say that a 94-year-old woman was left bedridden and hungry because her carer failed to turn up?

It shows that Cordia isn’t ‘fit for purpose’.

Cordia is a Glasgow Labour Council of shame ALEO set up by disgraced Leader of shame Steven ‘bin laden’ Purcell.

On Wednesday, April 7, 2010, I wrote a post concerning Cordia, job losses and poor service showed how badly Glasgow Labour Council thought this ALEO through.

The head of Cordia is Fergus Chambers, he reaps a hefty salary, £132,500-a-year but his workers don’t do so well.They are continually forced to do more work in less time, which means the elderly and infirm get less quality time and help in their own homes.

This doesn’t help victims like Anne Clark who relies on high dependancy care from Cordia.

She recently has a hip replacement six weeks ago and suffers from deteriorating health which causes severe eyesight and balance problems.

She needs help, on Monday help didn’t arrive and there appears to be no procedure in place when the carer does not appear.

Is this poor management or criminally irresponsible?

The problem in the Glasgow Labour Council of shame is that there appears to be a culture of cronyism and indifference.

Cordia isn’t a ‘new’ company it is the old council department which was farmed out to save money.

But the people heading up the Labour Council of shame ALEO’s saw their money dramatically rise.

ALEO’s are filled with Labour placemen and women which explains why people running it get such high salaries.

So, what happened in the case of Anne Clark?

At the first time slot of 9am Mrs Clark was supposed to have assistance to get out of bed, get washed and to make her breakfast.

She was forced to stay in bed all day before finally seeing a member of staff at 5pm that evening.

Then instead of alarm bells going off and procedures kicking in to address the issue she suffered the same on Tuesday Mrs Clark left bedridden until 5pm again.

The problem with Cordia is that it is still run like a Council department where procedures are not put in place to address issues of accountability.

Case in point, Mrs Clark was unable to contact Cordia because the only number she had been given was for the social work services.

What does it say that Cordia can't give out a simple emergency number?

Bad management!

Mrs Clark’s daughter said:

“The social work number was just ringing out because it was a Bank Holiday. They don’t have adequate structuring. My mother could have died. She’s so frail that she can’t walk. Her confidence has just hit rock bottom again. Luckily my mother managed to call a friend who dropped off a pie for her because she was so hungry.”

A Cordia spokeswoman said:

“Due to exceptional circumstances this error was not immediately picked up as the home that was mistakenly visited belonged to another Cordia client who lives next door to Mrs Clarke. This was the result of a genuine human oversight and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

With Cordia there are always ‘exceptional’ circumstances why they haven’t done their jobs properly!

When carers are given keys to clients’ homes there is no central record of Cordia having them or even who has them.

This shows that Cordia isn’t fit for purpose and there isn’t the talent on the ground to address issues before they arise.

Cordia needs a better system to deliver the services for its clients and a clear out at the top is a priority.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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