Care Homes have been around for decades in the UK. However, many people do not like the idea of a care home for themselves or their loved ones. People more and more want to be taken care of in their own home surrounded by their family members with the help of high-quality home care providers.
When Tom Page, Managing Director of West Park Care, had to find a home care service provider for his loved one, he realised the lack of quality care in this space and how challenging it was to organise. However, rather than fighting the already existing system, Tom decided to make the change by founding West Park Care, which has become a renowned home care provider in the UK.
West Park Care focuses on a customer-centric approach by committing to support clients through every step of the care cycle and provide bespoke care. The company’s non-rushed approach with client calls and meetings enables its care experts to analyse and understand the clients’ needs. This further has helped the company establish itself as a high quality, professional and consistent home care provider in the community.
Read the following interview to get a glimpse of how West Park Care was founded and how the organisation has been disrupting the home care space with its improved and client-friendly services.
Tom, brief us about your journey in the healthcare industry.
I have a strong background in customer service and sales working both in the banking sector and corporate sales. It was whilst I was working as a Head of Sales that I had to organise care for a loved one and could not understand why the process was so confusing and, in my opinion, the quality of care was often so poor.
I decided that by focusing on some key aspects such as having full-time permanent staff, consistency of service, and bespoke care packages the entire experience could be much more positive. I started the business with a business partner who has a successful business delivering specialist care to children and we have grown to strengthen our high standards and client satisfaction.
Tell us more about your home care solutions that make your company stand out from the competition?
All of our home care packages are designed bespoke to each client as we do not believe in a one size fits all approach to home care. We match our highly trained Care Experts with each client and ensure that our clients only see a small team of carers to provide consistent services.
We offer a minimum of one-hour care calls to ensure that our clients and staff never feel rushed and also have enough time to interact during the call. Using our full-time staff and bespoke packages we ensure that care delivery is individual to each client and of the highest quality.
What is your opinion on the impact of the current pandemic on the global healthcare sector, and how has your company fared during the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns?
I think the pandemic created a lot of fear and uncertainty for both staff and clients in the healthcare sector and we noticed this especially with our elderly clients. As a business, we responded quickly to the key issues of PPE and client and staff exposure by ordering a large amount of PPE and limiting even further how many staff members visited clients to try and minimise the risk of infection. It is with great pleasure to say that over a year on we have not had any staff or clients contract the virus, but we remain cautious daily. I do think that the pandemic has made more people look for care in their own homes instead of going into a care home, where the risk of infections has been high.
What is your opinion on the necessity for healthcare service providers to align their offerings with newer technological developments, especially when it comes to catering to changing patient preferences and needs?
I think this is essential and something we have implemented by using a dedicated care software to manage our service delivery. Our Care Experts log notes from each visit live and these notes can be viewed by the office team to react quickly to any changes but also allows family members to have access to these notes for peace of mind that their loved one is receiving the care they require. The software also allows us to ensure that our staff members who are often lone working are safe in the community. I think a big step forward would be a system where we could integrate with other professionals such as social workers, GP’s and district nurses.
In your opinion, what could be the future of the healthcare services sector post the pandemic? And how are you strategizing your company’s operations for that future?
I think there will be a shift towards more care at home as people realise that good quality home care is available and that a care home is not the only option. I think our experienced care staff have been a huge help to people for both necessities and also for companionship. I hope that people appreciate the care sector and the vital jobs that are being done. As a company, we are now more than ever focusing on the quality of our service delivery and looking to launch our service into more areas of the country.
As an established leader, what would be your advice to the budding entrepreneurs and enthusiasts aspiring to venture into healthcare services?
My main advice would be to focus on quality not price. It is essential that the service you deliver is of the highest quality and that it is focused on the client and also the staff involved in your company. Without our amazing care team, I would not have a business so you must look after your team so that they look after your clients. As an entrepreneur, you need to provide a service that meets clients’ needs and makes their lives easier and the rest will follow.
How do you envision scaling your company’s operations in 2021?
I am hopeful that as we come out of the back of the pandemic, we can launch into two new areas relatively quickly and build on our success. I think we can offer employment to a lot of people and deliver some growth to local economies whilst helping more and more clients in their own homes.
