Mosgiel man Mike Beath, whose wife has multiple sclerosis, says he is sick of leaving messages with her home support provider in Auckland and Australia and not getting an adequate response.
Three times in as many weeks, the Beaths have had one carer arrive, when two are required to operate the hoists.
The provider is the Australian-owned Royal District Nursing Service New Zealand (RDNS NZ), which provides two carers to visit his wife Marjorie twice a day.
The former provider, Presbyterian Support Otago, opted out of disability-funded home support after losing its large district health board contract in this year's controversial shake-up. The Beaths switched to RDNS NZ about two months ago.
Mr Beath (71) had no issue with the ''excellent'' carers, but had had a lot of trouble sorting out problems with their employer.
''You've got no personal contact with anybody.
''You can leave a message with Auckland or Australia, and half the time nobody gets back to you.
''It's probably going to take a while to get used to their attitude, but it's certainly not working out as far as my wife's concerned.''
RDNS NZ chief executive Scott Arrol, contacted in Auckland, confirmed in a written statement there had been a complaint from Mr Beath.
He declined to discuss the case but said the service would ''work closely with the client to identify and resolve this particular concern whilst ensuring any learnings that come from this are built into our continuous improvement programme.''
