Warrington Council has accepted the findings of an ombudsman investigation which found that care workers repeatedly stayed for less than 15 minutes at the home of a patient with dementia.
In addition to the individual case, local government and social care ombudsman Michael King highlighted 313 adults in the borough receiving 15-minute visits ‘despite national guidance stressing these were not usually appropriate’.
He added: ‘When looking at visits which may require care workers to dress, wash or feed a person, 15 minutes is rarely enough.
‘We are increasingly looking at complaints from a human rights perspective - councils need to consider the rights of service users to have a private life when commissioning or delivering care.’
In a statement, the council said about 11% of its home-care packages for people in Warrington were 15-minute visits.
‘We have already undertaken reviews of people in receipt of 15-minute calls to ensure they are appropriate.
‘We are planning further work in the next two months which will include independent assessment of our work.’
