Home Service Staff Alarm: "We Can't Do What We Should"

The other day we talked about Börje Alström in Gothenburg who got a diaper taped on the body by the home care staff after it broke. He is unhappy with the response to the home service in Gothenburg and he is not alone.

In recent years, the municipality has been at the bottom of the National Board of Health's user survey, where all municipalities in Sweden are compared. Last year, Gothenburg was sixth from the end, worst in all of Västra Götaland.

The article about Börje has attracted a great deal of attention, not least from home care staff, who are now witnessing poor working conditions.

Silvana Vretoska has worked in the home service for 21 years and is now the safety representative for the trade union Municipal. She works in Askim-Frölunda-Högsbo in Gothenburg.

- The work situation is stressful, you don't have time to transport, not time to document. The politicians should get in the collar and realize that more money is needed here, she says.

She says that she can have up to 20 users in one day. Recently, together with other security agents, she submitted 50 so-called 66A notifications. It is a request for work environment measures from the employer, due to an unsustainable work environment.

- They have moved on, we are now waiting for decisions from the Swedish Work Environment Authority, says Silvana Vretoska.

The area manager for support in ordinary housing and home service in Askim-Frölunda-Högsbo, Linda Hedborg, explains that they are also awaiting decisions from the Swedish Work Environment Authority.

- After that comes further efforts depending on what the Swedish Work Environment Authority decides. We have also drawn up an action plan with municipalities, including a survey that is linked to surrounding time and travel time.

She explains that the number of users varies depending on the user's aid decision.

- This means that you can have different number of users during one and the same work session, because the users have granted different time. The employer understands that the work situation can be perceived as stressful. We take employees' experiences seriously and try to rectify the situation, says Linda Hedborg.

SVT News West also talked to another woman, who wants to be anonymous. She has worked in the home service in Western Sweden for around 30 years.

- The situation is not okay anywhere. We want to do a good job, but I and many of my colleagues feel that we cannot do what we should. You do not have time to document, can not order medicine. I have some workouts from 7 in the morning to 22 in the evening with two half-hour breaks, she says.

For a while she had a schedule where she worked 42 hours in total, from Friday night to Monday morning.

The woman also tells about the responsibility she has as a home care staff, to take instructions from doctors, to be able to give the right medication, to have contact with relatives, physiotherapists and dentists.

- People don't take our job seriously. They say "yes, you just change diapers all day". But it is a very small part of what we do. You are all-in-all and take care of the elderly until the last breath. We have a lot of responsibility, she says.

It is extremely much that they will have to catch in one day, she says. But there are not many margins in the schedule.

- Moving between customers can take time. Sometimes there are car queues, you can be 25-30 minutes late because you get stuck in traffic.

There are no margins included?

- No, not at all.