Walking with Oxygen Campaign - Living life with Oxygen

Richard is 62 and our latest contributor at the start of 2007. So 12 months on and people are still contacting us. So what do we see here apart from the fact that an individual (Aren't we all??) is struggling with the One size fits all operation. Call Centres and the overworked PCT's trying to sort things out. Richard's logical analyses is very clear on this.

I found your web-site a couple of days ago and found it most interesting to read of the experiences of your contributors and their home delivered oxygen service. I am a daily user of oxygen myself and have been for the last twelve months: I use a BREAS ventilator which breathes for me every night, and this is connected to a Concentrator producing oxygen. I have a second concentrator downstairs and have a regular delivery of Freedom 400 oxygen cylinders for daytime use.

The response time from the oxygen supplier, Air Products, is very good, but this has not always been the case.

I was first prescribed oxygen in October last year and received a regular supply from the local pharmacy here in Wellington. In hospital I used the piped oxygen and the little CD portable cylinders when moving around.

I left hospital shortly after Christmas and the concentrator was installed the following day. We began to experience problems when we tried ordering oxygen from the pharmacy - there were no longer stocks available. I had the number for Devilbis, who installed the concentrator, but they refused to supply me - I was no longer in their territory. They suggested I call Air Products - they couldn't supply because I had not completed a HOOF form. This was done only by the GP's surgery and could take weeks, I was told.

So what do I do in the meantime? They (the GP) kindly gave me a prescription for oxygen cylinders, to take to the pharmacy, knowing full well they had no longer any cylinders in stock, and were not able to obtain any. At this time my only source of oxygen was from the concentrator situated by my bed. What a farce this was proving to be!

My wife contacted the regional manager of Boots; Boots, as one might expect, had run down their supply of cylinders in anticipation of the government's new ruling and were unable to supply. Luckily he was able to put us in touch with a pharmacy some 7 miles away who had a small stock. But these were CD cylinders with a usable supply of about one hour.

The local GP was chivied daily about the HOOF form, until at last Air Products were able to supply. The guy who made the first delivery was helpful; he brought Freedom 300 bottles and promised a carrier.

The people making the deliveries are cheerful and eager to help; it's the tele-sales' attitude that leaves a lot to be desired.

It seems that they were originally given misleading information about numbers of oxygen-users and this serious under-estimation very quickly led to a short-fall in deliveries, with serious consequences. The fact was that the tele-sales staff, recruited to cope with the anticipated extra demands, were untrained and often had not a clue what was being asked of them. Imagine the scenario of a customer, new to oxygen, talking to his supplier who has only a limited understanding about the company's products!

The situation was made worse by the regime that had operated before: the pharmacy delivering the cylinders. It appears that the pharmacies would happily deliver the oxygen, but were not so disciplined into collecting the empties; as a result there were many home-oxygen users with stocks of empty cylinders in the garage or garden-shed! Of course, Air Products were totally unaware of this, and quickly reached a short-supply situation. Instead of asking the customers for their empty cylinders, they asked for the customers understanding while they awaited the delivery of further stocks. Which meant customers were short-delivered. Last January, Air Products were confident everything would be straight by 31st March. This was an optimistic hope. Certainly, the supply situation improved, delivery waiting-times were down to two to three working days and the sales staff were becoming more helpful. There were the odd glitches, though: we planned to tour Scotland last summer, and ordered 6 Freedom 400 cylinders. That’s right – 6 of them! “Why do you want that many?” Because we’re touring for a week or more. “But we can deliver direct to your resort” We’re touring, we don’t know where we shall be staying. “Well, you can’t have six cylinders.” Along with this argument, the tele-sales girl suddenly retorted with “Can you get off the line, other people are trying to book their supplies and you’re holding everything up!”

Of course, this makes one even more determined to stay on the line. The strategy eventually worked and 6 cylinders were delivered a couple of days later.

At about this time we took up our complaints with the local PCT, who were clearly well used to receiving calls from exasperated oxygen users. The PCT manager in question told me that at a recent regional meeting of Midlands PCTs, top of the agenda was: what are we going to do about the home-delivered oxygen service?

Air Products’ experience, I believe, was principally in industry, not the healthcare sector; there is a world of difference – an industrial plant can operate on reduced capacity or shut-down completely whilst awaiting supplies. It is just not possible to tell patients they must stop breathing while the supplies back-log is sorted out. It is this situation, coupled with the lack of helpfulness and the appalling ignorance of the tele-sales staff, led to the bad feeling that your correspondents have described.

Richard's analyses of the Home Oxygen Service is quite typical and as such makes you think that something is consistently wrong with the Business Model. Richard is also contributing to our ideas about flexible provision that we will take forward in our proposals.

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Last modified: 08/30/07