Hanging on the Telephone

Mr D was beaming when he opened the door to me, and I was thinking it was because the sun was shining in - "Yes," he said, "if it was warmer we could sunbathe." It was lovely to see him in such a buoyant mood.

He said he was pleased I had come as he had a couple of things that had been puzzling him and asked if I could help him sort them out. #1 his boiler had packed in again and he was confused with the messages that had been sent telling him when the engineer would come as they seemed to keep changing. I was able to read the texts to him and explained the engineer was now coming between 2 and 6. ✅ #2 confusing letter form NHS but he couldn't see any date on it and wasn't expecting an appointment. It was just a circular which I had also received so I showed him that it didn't have his name on and it was just asking for volunteers for a research project. So that went in the bin. ✅ #3 strange voicemail from the Medical Trust that referred him to GoodGym asking him if he wanted to be paired with another older person . He wasn't sure why he needed to be paired with another person as he was happy seeing me on his own. So we phoned back the number and he spoke to the receptionist who had completely got the wrong end of the stick about the new Coach Pairings and thought he was being paired with the other Mr D who I visit. It took me a while to explain the process to her and that I would have two separate pairings with these lovely gents. ✅ #4 listened to another voicemail from the surgery informing him of an appointment next week. He wasn't expecting an appointment next week and was worried it was a scam as when he had tried phoning the number back it was unobtainable. I was concerned too that someone might visit pretending to be his doctor so suggested we ring the surgery directly and ask about it. They confirmed it was a bonafide appointment for a GP home visit from the medical group doctor. ✅ #5 the gas man texted to say he would be 15 minutes - so I read the text to Mr D, and when the gas man arrived helped Mr D explain what the problem was. The gas man did some tests and was fitting a new valve so that the heating would work again. ✅ And by the time all this was sorted we had only just managed to squeeze in a cuppa and a jam tart, but it was then time for me to go.

Mr D apologised that he hadn't had much time to talk about my week but said he had been really appreciative of all the help I'd given. So despite it being busy I was pleased that it was a really successful, useful visit.