Radfield Home Care experiences peak in demand

Radfield Home Care franchisees have been delivering all-time-high levels of care services during recent weeks, highlighting the demand for at-home care during the coronavirus pandemic

During the last week of April, almost 75 per cent of Radfield Home Care’s franchise locations provided record hours of care to clients across their local communities. This follows a persistent pattern of increased care delivery in recent weeks, with some franchise partners providing almost twice the amount of care and support services than at the beginning of March.

Franchisor, Dr Hannah MacKechnie is proud to see the Radfield Home Care network supporting vulnerable clients and helping ease the pressure on the NHS at these challenging times: “Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, community care services have played a critical part in supporting those that have been forced to shield themselves from the virus. With many older people feeling the impact of isolation, home care services are going above and beyond to ensure clients are not only receiving the essential care services they require but also supporting them with things such as food shopping, helping to use technology to keep in touch with loved ones and even surprise dinner dates in some of our locations!

“The efforts of home care providers and care professionals to pull together is also helping ease the burden on the NHS, as we help remove some of the challenges associated with isolating for many weeks.”

Radfield Home Care’s Wakefield-based franchise is just one of Radfield’s franchises in the UK that has experienced an increase in demand for domiciliary care services over recent weeks and has some heart-warming stories that go with that.

“During recent weeks we have grown significantly; we are now providing almost double the amount of care than we were eight weeks ago. Whilst some of this increase is new clients joining us due to coronavirus, it is largely due to many of our existing clients increasing their amount of care for reasons irrespective of COVID-19,” explains Radfield Home Care Wakefield and Dewsbury franchise partner, Jackie Gillen.

“Despite fewer clients joining us due to coronavirus than we anticipated, the current climate has highlighted that people do still require care services even when external factors are in force. This has a positive impact on the local community too, as not only are we supporting more clients, we are also able to offer our brilliant care professionals job security as they go above and beyond to keep morale high and make sure our clients are all happy.

“For example, one of our care professionals even cooked a home-made lasagne and spent the evening with one of our clients who has had to place her previously busy social life on hold during the pandemic. It is outcomes such as these that make delivering care really rewarding in these times.”

Launched in 2008, Radfield Home Care was born in the midst of the financial crisis and continued to grow consistently throughout this period. However, the recent growth within the network during the current pandemic is another example of the resilience of the care sector and the value it adds to local communities when times are hard.