Hello Jayne,

I've had ra since 2007
Recently injecting enbrel every week.
Sorry you are having problems getting to talk to someone regarding your appointment.

I only had healthcare at home once, was fine with the process.

Never experienced any issues with the call centre, lovely people.

Maybe you have a nurses contact number and not the call centre number?
Google the health care at home to see if that is the correct number.

NRAS is a fabulous pool to share info/experience/have a giggle as well!

Take care,
Jane

Hello Jayne

Welcome to the forum.

I was thinking about putting up a post about HCAH. I belong to a patient group at my hospital and we had a meeting a few weeks ago. We discuss things about the department and any improvements we can think of from a patients point of view. The specialist nurse asked us if any of us had any problems with them because she was putting together a letter of complaint to them. Myself and another lady had had a problem, nothing major but never the less we had problems. She emailed them and hadn't got a reply and ended up having to ring and was kept on hold for a long time, she said the phone call cost her £4.

I am going away next week for a month and I was getting low on my Enbrel and MTX so end of last week I thought I'd better ring them. Normally they answer the phone straight away, but this time I was on hold for over 9 minutes before they answered. The young lady apologised for the delay in answering and admitted that they are behind with ring people up and a lot of people are ring about their orders.

My order came today, but I wonder what the outcome would of been if I hadn't contacted them.

I sometimes read the Arthritis Care Forum and HCAH was being discussed on there. It seems that others are having problems, from what I read they have been taken over and things are not running like they use to. The lady that started the thread had her Humira delivered at 2am in the morning!

http://arthritiscareforu...pic.php?f=8&t=41068

Paula x

Welcome Jayne,

As someone very much newer to RA I have little advice to offer you, but one thing I can say,
I have found NRAS an absolute God send.
I have only phoned them once but it was very useful.

The online forum here is great, although it does seem to have quietened down over the past couple of months,
the input from people is just as valuable, genuine and caring.

I also find that I look back over previous blogs and get lots of info.

Hope you soon manage your personal injections with panache and flair (not flare ).

Gogs x

I only used H@H twice, once to deliver my injectable MTX and again, 3 weeks later, to collect it all after a severe reaction that hospitalised me. That was back in April 2013, and I had no problems getting in contact - far from it . So it looks as though the decline in service is a recent thing.

hello Jayne,

welcome,

quite worried reading the posts about Healthcare at Home, i have never had any problems at all except one. just before my Summer hols they phoned me to say they hadn't had my prescription from my Hospital and that they would chase it up. me being me got straight on to my Rheumy Nurse who said she would check it out and she duly did. if it hadn't have been for my intervention i don't think Healthcare would have got the delivery to me before my hols.

delivery has been fine since then but somehow reading this make's me feel slightly vunerable.

i hope Cimzia works well for you Jayne,

best wishes

Suzanne

Healthcare at Home are under new management, and it has been a total shambles over the Christmas period. I had to make several lengthy phone calls in the run-up to Christmas, as my delivery was due on Christmas Day. They couldn`t offer an alternative date when I rang the first time, and I was in the position of having used my last injection. They did offer to deliver it to my son`s home in York!! After phone calls and emails I finally got my delivery on Dec. 20th, but I also pointed out I have never received my pre-delivery phone call since about May.I always have to phone them to sort delivery out.

Until the takeover they were brilliant, so I hope they improve soon. I`m letting my rheumy nurse know after New Year, as we shouldn`t have to be forever chasing up injections. One irate husband whose wife`s injection was already overdue had to have the delivery by private courier - it`s just not good enough.

Kathleen x

I should have had my phone call by now,

will ring them tomorrow.

hi Kathleen,

i just popped on the forum to say i am now slightly panicky,

i have sat for three 25 minute calls waiting for a customer care person from Health Care and so far no one has answered me,

my next delivery is scheduled for 10th January, and i have two Humira left as i type, they have normally phoned me by now to confirm delivery.

any suggestions as to what i do,

i am now thinking i will have to wait till the 2nd January as the message says high volume due to the Christmas and New Year period.

never felt this vunerable before!

Suzanne x

Hi Suzanne,

I know exactly how you feel, worrying about your drugs coming. It took me more than a couple of calls to H@H before I actually got someone to speak to. - I stayed on the phone for ages listening to their stupid music and announcements about being busy over the Christmas period. That's just an excuse, as they stopped calling me in about May or June.

I did send a very strongly-worded e-mail, which they acknowledged when they finally rang back. My Plan B was to ring my rheumy nurse, so you could try explaining the situation to yours, otherwise it's a case of persevering. I was desperate to get through, as I had no pens left.

Good luck,

Kathleen x

Hi everyone, just thought I would let you know that I had a letter today from Healthcare at Home.
They confirmed that they have had major problems with staffing levels but say that they now have
more staff to deal with phone calls etc. However, they say if you can't get through on the phone
email them on hahenquiries@hah.co.uk & they will reply within 24 hours. Hope this helps.
Happy New Year to you all.
Best wishes for 2014,
Jayne x