Concerns that letters to the elderly about possible changes to their housework help provided inadequate contact details to appeal are literally being addressed by the Otago District Health Board.
A woman, who did not wish to be named, said the letter her elderly mother received had only an 0800 telephone number, no physical address and no fax or email contact details on it.
When she dialled the 0800 number last week she did not get a call back that day.
She rang again the next day and it was about three hours before she was called back, she said.
She was concerned some elderly, who might be trying to deal with the situation without support, would give up.
There was a limited time to appeal against the removal of services.
Waiting for several hours if you were anxious could seem a long time, she said.
When the Otago Daily Times raised these concerns with the board, group manager Elaine Chisnall, who is overseeing the project, said in her email response the lack of a physical address on the letters was an error which had now been corrected.
She also said arrangements had been made to add the Needs Assessment Service Co-ordination fax number to future letters.
An email address would be difficult to add straight away as it would require a separate generic email account to be set up and this could not be done until after Easter.
Mrs Chisnall said the person manning the 0800 number had indicated that often when she called people back there was no reply or voicemail to leave a message and she had to try several times before reaching someone.
This meant it could appear to people that the call had not been returned when it had.
She also said some people called the number during the weekend, when the information in the letters stated it was only a Monday to Friday service.
Last month the Otago and Southland health boards began sending out 1600 letters to elderly people receiving 1.5 hours or less of housework support.
The letters gave them three weeks' notice that their support could be cut.
People who wished to appeal the decision had two weeks to do so.
