The accident occurred one afternoon when the woman had washed the dishes and put down the alarm so that it would not be damaged by the water.
And there was the alarm, out of reach, when the 85-year-old then happened to fall and hit herself so badly that she could not get up again.
She was not seriously injured but was in great pain.
Four hours later, the home service arrived.
But when the 85-year-old neither opened the door nor answered the mobile phone, the home help service left.
It was not until 17 hours later, when another domestic worker arrived, that the woman received help.
Receives an alert for the event
The employee who left is now given a warning.
- The person has stated stress as the reason for the incident.
But we do not share the view that stress is an acceptable excuse in this case.
We believe that the employee was aware of the routines that exist, says operations manager Eric Semb, operations manager at the health and care administration.
He says that there are two possible routines when something like this happens: Either the home care service should call a relative or enter with an alarm key based on an agreement.
- In this case, a relative would have been contacted, but that did not happen.
And if you are as stressed as the person says, you can also contact colleagues or a supervisor, says Eric Semb.
He regrets that the 85-year-old woman was forced to lie for so long with severe pain without help.
- These are serious things, it should not be possible to happen, says Eric Semb.
The union: unclear routines
But the Municipal Union does not follow the line of the administrative management.
- We oppose the decision on a warning.
We do not believe that the routines referred to are probably clear, says Louise Ressner, work environment coordinator at Kommunal in Helsingborg.
The incident has been reported to the Swedish Health and Care Inspectorate, Ivo, who has now been able to take part in the municipality's investigation of the incident.