Liveline has been hearing from people who work as agency carers over the past few days, with many sharing stories of long days, no breaks and the difficulty of not knowing what they might have to face when they take a call.
One caller who had a pretty unique experience told Joe that she arrived at the address she had been sent to care for a man who was coming home from hospital.
“The son lets me in the door and he says, “Thanks for coming.” I walk in, the man is laid out in the sitting room, right? He’s laid out in the coffin in the sitting room.”
At this point, Joe couldn’t hide his surprise and asked for confirmation: was her would-be client in fact deceased?
“The widow is sitting in the chair and she’s going, “What are you doing here?”. I said, “They said you needed a call.” She said, “Well, I think you’re a bit late, love”. When I rang the office they said, “Oh, we were only told he was coming out of hospital.” I said, “Yeah, he came out in a pine box”.
Listen back to Liveline here.