[karan86]

Hello All!

I'm a citizen of Bombay and at the beginning of this year, my father had to start relying on dialysis as his kidney problem worsened. After a month of hemodialysis, we shifted him to CAPD as the former was taking too much of a toll on his energy levels as he is also hypertensive (Please PM if anyone needs to know more about peritoneal dialysis and its costs, etc).

The CAPD (peritoneal dialysis) procedure has to happen four times in a day, each session requiring an hour. Also, due to severe weakness after a month of hospitalisation, my father needed assistance in movement and other everyday procedures. So we decided to hire a caretaker as his situation needs monitoring all the time. We wanted someone who could also perform the dialysis once that person was trained to do so.

Initially, we hired the services of Care24. This agency sent a caretaker who stayed at home 24/7. According to an offer from the agent of this company, we had to pay 27k a month for their services, which included immediate replacement if the existing guy requires a leave or leaves for good. This amount had to be paid in advance though. While the guy was performing his duties well, a couple months later, he wanted to leave as he had found a better paying job. Turns out, the agency only paid him 18k a month and pocketed the rest as their fee. We tried retaining the person by offering to pay him 27k directly instead but he refused.

We figured that a better solution had to be found as training a new person to perform the dialysis takes at least a week and given the current situation, we could not risk allowing a new person in the house frequently. I gave the Care24 guys a notice to inform that according to the money paid in advance, their person would leave on a date until which I have paid and it was agreed by them. Interestingly, they also have an app which tells you how much is due among certain other things and that app was still calculating as per the normal rates. This issue was flagged in the very beginning and I was told to not pay attention. A week after the caretaker left, I started getting messages of an xyz amount due. One of their people even threatened me with legal action, until I sent him a screenshot of the initial conversation I had with his colleague about the amount negotiated to be paid each month. Had it not been for that saved message though, I know the kind of unnecessary harassment I would've had to go through, even after paying in advance

Since I was now taking care of my father, and my mother's spondylitis troubling her too much, I hardly had any time left to work. So I contacted Kaamwalibais.com, who agreed to find a suitable candidate for a finder's fee of 17k and an equivalent monthly salary which had to be paid directly to the caretaker. The finder's fee had to be paid in half initially and the other half once the candidate was finalised. According to them, they would find 3 replacements in a year and every new candidate would not venture out of the house or avail any leaves for the first 3 months due to covid. The rest was on mutually agreed terms between the person they sent and the employer. Found a young bloke who seemed alright, got his Covid test done and he got home.

His stay only lasted for a week as my mother found him sneaky and grew so suspicious of his behaviour, she slept with a knife under her pillow (which I found out after the guy left). We have two flats on the same floor and I live in the flat opposite. While I was teaching the guy on how to perform the dialysis, I found him weird. He would be very restless, roam around sneakily in the house when my parents would take a nap in the afternoon and would rarely make eye contact. When he first came home, he said he forgot his luggage in the train. So I gave him some clothes and also a spare phone. But he also wanted a sim card and I denied. Which is when he got one himself using his own aadhar. The boy would make several mistakes while performing the dialysis, even after being trained for 5 days. It's a simple procedure but he was just too distracted. Turns out he had run away from home (on the outskirts of Bombay) after a tiff which involved his girlfriend and her family. One fine day, he said he had to go buy clothes after I had paid him and I agreed. His couple hours outing lasted for nearly 8 hours and he had missed the dialysis schedule. I decided to let him go as I could not trust this guy with my father's life.

Kaamwalibais.com agreed to arrange for a replacement. I chose one among all the profiles they shared. This person tested positive and had to be quarantined for 14 days. BTW, we paid for every test. For nearly two weeks, kaamwalibais.com failed to share any suitable profiles and nobody even bothered to call or share an update unless we did. A couple weeks later, the same guy we chose earlier had tested negative and was ready to work. Just to be sure he knows about the job, I explained every thing in detail to him and he said he would learn and tell me if he was okay with it. I liked his honesty and he resumed work.

A week after being trained, this guy too would keep forgetting things which are a vital part of the procedure. Vital but something as simple as opening a valve on the catheter attached to the peritoneum. So much so, my mother couldn't trust him and decided to monitor him, every time he performed the dialysis. Every 5 days, I would ask him if he understood the job, if he was happy with the environment, and if would like to continue? The man would happily say, Yes! A couple weeks later, this person had started talking rudely to my parents and upon confrontation, revealed that his hunger hasn't been satiated since the day he joined. I found this surprising as my mother would always ask him to serve himself more once she had done serving him. Due to Covid, the cook wasn't allowed and given my mother's health, she could only cook so much. I would chip in almost every day to help out.

I told the guy to tell me what he wants to eat and then came his reply. 25 rotis for lunch, 1/2 kilo rice for dinner, 250 grams of lentils and two vegetables! Although I can and so can my mother, we were not going to roll 25 rotis for one guy alone, just for lunch. So we asked him if he wants to make them for himself and he did. The rest was all provided as it's easy to cook. Then, on a random morning, the guy sends me a message that he wants to leave. I asked him the reason and he said I want to go home. So I asked him to wait for some time until a replacement arrives. He replies by saying he is giving me two days of time! Not surprised with his tone, I asked him to just go after paying his dues.

In the meanwhile, Kaamwalibais.com said they will find a replacement in a week's time and get back. Guess what, they never did. So I called them again and asked for a refund (an agreement on their letterhead which I have a copy of tells me I can ask for one if these guys cannot give me the service I want) as I could not allow a new person in the house at this time, what with Covid now in the air, in the clouds, in the sunshine and what not. A girl called Reshma who had been my point of contact keeps leaving things to tomorrow. Finally, she says no refund can be processed and I can do whatever I want. I had written off the amount at the very moment I had paid them so I don't know if I will want to drain my top compartment for nothing. So I google these guys and find out a robbery case which involved their company and the same Reshma woman. Their google reviews are all paid and the CEO has the brain of a snail. Here's an except from an article in which one of their appointees was involved in a robbery, "When DNA called kaamwalibais.com owner Suraj Agarwal, he insisted Alinka would not steal. “She's a graduate and has given us aadhar and pan card details which no criminal would do.”

https://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/repo...-alarm-2661691

I shared my experience to help others understand how these people operate and I hope it helps them make a wise choice. Kaamwalibais.com for sure has a modus operandi which involves cheating/robbing people. I was probably not robbed because we rarely keep cash in the house and our family believes in minimalism. Finding solutions for our troubles in the digital world has become natural for all of us, but I guess some things are always better if done the old school way.

[V.Narayan]

Thank you for sharing your experience. We used EMOHA an all India service head quartered, I think, in Bangalore. We used them to provide a trained caretaker for my father in law. The person they provided worked for 3 months before leaving. He was very good with his work and with his patience with an ailing and very old man in his care. He had been a caretaker twice before for other elderly patients and had learnt on the job. His replacement turned out to be worse than useless. It just so happened we had to move my FiL to the hospital the very next day where he passed away a few days later. I think it is a touch and go situation of getting the right person. Most of them are the unemployed or the unemployable who get picked up by these agencies. They usually have zero training.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by karan86

but I guess some things are always better if done the old school way.

+1 to this. And even by the old school way, it's not always 100% safe.

We have had our shares of troubles finding and handling caretakers for my (late) grandmother and later my (late) grandfather. I don't remember the digital/online options availed back then but I remember they were not very useful as we hardly found any worthwhile leads coming out of it.

Finally we had to reach out to our friends and family for options. While we went through a few individuals who either dropped out or we had to let go due to their bad services, the worst part of this whole experience was a maid for my grandfather about ~10 years ago who worked for us for about 3+ months. She was quite good at her job and took good care of my grandfather. And to an extent, she was quite good in her work and sweet natured so my mother felt quite comfortable with her around and would let her do the job without any monitoring.

Overtime we started seeing subtle changes in my grandfather as he started suggesting (initially) and later demanding that we pay her more for her services and even start considering her to be a full-time 24X7 support. This was quite unlike him and also there was no need for a full time support as we had two other household help who had been with us for over 40+ years.

It soon dawned on us the maid was the cause of all this and we soon got rid of her. But she still wasn't out of reach - she kept trying to connect to my grandfather in person when my parents weren't at home or when he went out on his morning walks or other trips (to the bank, etc.). It was also noticed that there were a few cash withdrawals done during this period by him which went unaccounted for as he wouldn't give any details on why and where did he use the funds.

After some long conversations, my mother and her brother were finally able to convince him about the true situation and these 'meetings' stopped. But then she started calling him on his mobile and possibly asking for money and other aspects - a fact that we got to realize quite late. I personally wasn't kept in loop on the situation, but I got to know many years later that she had boldly made demands to him to put her name in his will and even allocating the house and other assets in her name.

Till date only my mother knows of the total monetary damage we incurred but things could have easily gone quite bad if she had her way.

Originally Posted by karan86

Kaamwalibais.com for sure has a modus operandi which involves cheating/robbing people. I was probably not robbed because we rarely keep cash in the house and our family believes in minimalism. Finding solutions for our troubles in the digital world has become natural for all of us, but I guess some things are always better if done the old school way.

I briefly browsed through their 1200+ reviews. All 5 star reviews are given by individuals with only 1 or 2 reviews in total - clearly paid reviews created by fake profiles. If one digs deeper, there are the hidden negative reviews by actual individuals.

[Arun_S]

We had one for my grandmother, all these agencies will send one person, if you complain they will say will share a new one. It will take couple weeks.

The new one you get is a person who some else has complained. It is more like a swap.

After couple of times no response comes from them, they pocket the advance.

[haisaikat]

Finding reliable caregivers are always a challenge, problem is similar for baby sitters too. The problem we found were, younger more enthusistic ones have personal ambitions to fulfill outside the work, hence the money they accumulate need to be spent by taking off, which is against the need of the job. On the other hand, middle aged ones have way better commitment but their family priority limits their flexibility, valid ask, also they are less open to adopt newer methods of doing things.

I am not saying everyone's situation is similar, my father underwent dialysis in the last 5 years of this life before he died of Hepatititis B that came with a blood transfusion. In those 5 years, the 3 days of week he needed to go to dialysis, 2 used to be on weekdays and I always went in the 2nd half to the office on those days (after dropping my father at home) and made sure I made up for the demands of work at my office by staying late in the night. Yes my work offered that flexibility but at the same time I took a hard stand to speak up what my priority was even refusing to take up better career opportunities abroad.

So while nothing can replace a personal touch but for intense care requirements it is better to get a trained and educated nurse who will be expected to follow protocols for safety. At most 2 nurses in 2 shifts, although in current times nurses are also scarce.
Although there are exceptions but wherever situation allows, the best model is a 20 - 30 % of yourself along with 100 % of the caregiver.

[speedmiester]

Originally Posted by karan86

I shared my experience to help others understand how these people operate and I hope it helps them make a wise choice. Kaamwalibais.com for sure has a modus operandi which involves cheating/robbing people. I was probably not robbed because we rarely keep cash in the house and our family believes in minimalism. Finding solutions for our troubles in the digital world has become natural for all of us, but I guess some things are always better if done the old school way.

Thanks for sharing.
Have you tried Portea or Nightingales. They operate in Mumbai.
I have not personally used them, they look a bit more professional compared to others.

When my wife's grandmother had her knee replacement surgery done, they employed a well qualified nurse for 12 hours. The nurse was provided by JSS Hospitals, Mysore. The nurse was good and very knowledgeable. She was there was about three months. Never had any issues. If I recall correctly, the salary was 18K/month. This was about 5 years back.

[GTO]

Thanks for sharing! Very unique thread.

We have a cook & house help staff, but always recruit them through references. Somehow, that has always worked better for us. We did try an agency for maids twice, but they were quite cunning. The agency would take 1-month salary as their placement fee and the contract is valid for 90-days. Free replacement if the maid quits in 90 days. Sure enough, the maid they provided would quit like clockwork at or about the 3-4 month mark. Plus, even in matters of trust (after all, someone living at your house), we've found referrals to be way more dependable.

In these Covid times, I would strongly recommend a full-timer, rather than part-timers who come with a high degree of risk. No outsiders are allowed into our house.

[SmartCat]

We are using the services of Bash Heal Home Healthcare for my Mom:
https://bashheal-home-nursing-service.business.site/



PROS:

- Caretaker will be home 24/7. This is a huge relief for everybody at home because it greatly reduces the stress of elderly care.
- The caretakers are usually those who have taken nursing courses but either failed the exams or those who could not continue it further because of financial difficulties. So these caretakers are able to handle basics like giving injections or medicines.
- Assists the patient with everything (bathing, toilet etc)
- Company will replace the caretaker if we are not happy with the service provided.
- Caretaker is Covid tested before arriving home

CONS:

- A bit expensive at Rs. 21,000 per month. We have used this provider before too - and he has been raising charges every year (used to be Rs. 15000 per month a few years back)
- All caretakers are young girls. So expect them to be yapping on the phone all the time, even at night. It also brings other complications like occasional visits from suspicious looking 'brother' or 'cousin'. This needs to be dealt with a firm hand by setting ground rules.
- Having a stranger at home can be a bit unnerving initially. But so far, over the years, we have found all caretakers to be honest people.

TIPS:

Do not ask caretaker to do the job of household maid or a cook. However, asking the caretaker to maintain the cleanliness of the room where elderly stays is fine.

[Krishnan V G]

I see that one of our members has mentioned the name of Portea. I had hired their services in Chennai in 2017 to take care of my mother who had multiple complications. They provided us with 2 or 3 caretakers (one after the other) but none of them stayed beyond a week or two. I had to request for change as all of them slept during the night (asked specially for night support only for my mother). Frustrated, I stopped their service. I am yet to hear a positive case of home care for the elderly from any of the so called service providers. One other local agency from Chennai gave us middle aged women who stayed with my mother full time. For about a month or so. But they were stealing items from home. Also, one of them was heard telling her son to come and stay with her in my mom's place for couple of months during summer in the air conditioned bedroom and enjoy life. As GTO has mentioned, referral system is the best in the given situation.

[Jaguar]

Here is a list of agencies providing home care services in Bangalore. I got this from a hospital coordinator a couple of weeks ago when my aunt had to undergo surgery. However, the coordinator was reluctant to give any feedback about any agency and kept on insisting that I need to bargain hard. Considering the current covid situation, we decided not to hire any help at the moment.

[Sedate]

Originally Posted by karan86

.................... After a month of hemodialysis, we shifted him to CAPD as the former was taking too much of a toll on his energy levels as he is also hypertensive (Please PM if anyone needs to know more about peritoneal dialysis and its costs, etc).

The CAPD (peritoneal dialysis) procedure has to happen four times in a day, each session requiring an hour..........

Please be extremley careful with training someone to do CAPD. The risk of infection is very high even for a minor mistake. A small slip of the tube or a small hair brushing the tube end is all it takes to cause infection. Speaking from 4+ years of experience.

All the times when someone else performed fluid changes, there were instances of infections. Also hope you are keeping an eye on the fluid colour and turbidity after each exchange.

In case you are finding it hard to get a help/care taker, there is Automated Peritonial dialysis - This is an overnight process where a machine pumps in and out the fluid in a 8 to 12 hour window during sleep. It is available in UK through Baxter, but Baxter India was not that receptive to the idea(in 2016) - given the machine being reliant on power/power situation in India.

The overnight process saves a lot of time, but is a bit annoying as most times you wake up when the fluid exchange happens. But when it comes to convenience, lowered risk and being automatic, it trumps all the other processes. May be with years passing by and yourself being in a metro, probably can think of APD. Baxter India may now be supporting it in India.

https://www.baxter.in/healthcare-pro...rce-renal-care

[karan86]

Originally Posted by Sedate

Please be extremley careful with training someone to do CAPD. The risk of infection is very high even for a minor mistake. A small slip of the tube or a small hair brushing the tube end is all it takes to cause infection. Speaking from 4+ years of experience.

All the times when someone else performed fluid changes, there were instances of infections. Also hope you are keeping an eye on the fluid colour and turbidity after each exchange.

In case you are finding it hard to get a help/care taker, there is Automated Peritonial dialysis - This is an overnight process where a machine pumps in and out the fluid in a 8 to 12 hour window during sleep. It is available in UK through Baxter, but Baxter India was not that receptive to the idea(in 2016) - given the machine being reliant on power/power situation in India.

The overnight process saves a lot of time, but is a bit annoying as most times you wake up when the fluid exchange happens. But when it comes to convenience, lowered risk and being automatic, it trumps all the other processes. May be with years passing by and yourself being in a metro, probably can think of APD. Baxter India may now be supporting it in India.

https://www.baxter.in/healthcare-pro...rce-renal-care

The guys from Baxter have assigned a co-ordinator who visits frequently and is very strict about how we perform the procedures. So much so, unless she okays that the person has been trained properly, we cannot allow a new person to do the dialysis. We take all the necessary precautions and more to keep any infections at bay. Includes injecting heparin at timely intervals to keep fibrin from clogging the cathether, ensuring the room and the entire house is free of dust and what not, sanitising each and every thing which is used for each session, and keeping an eye on the fluid's colour, etc. The procedure these days involves the use of Sterilium, which the operator must use to sterilize the hands, after washing them according to the 6-step procedure. Gloves, even the sanitised ones, cannot be used and the sterilium is so strong, if used generously, causes the skin on the hands to peel.

We asked the doctor about automated peritoneal dialysis and the trouble with that is that in my father's case, it needs to be plugged in for 12 hours every day. It's simply too much compared to four sessions of an hour each for the manual procedure. We even considered transplant, but my father's 67 already, is hypertensive and weak, and the post-transplant situation where one needs to rely on immuno-suppressants for the body to not attack the new organ, is just too scary.

[prits_moh]

Originally Posted by SmartCat

Do not ask caretaker to do the job of household maid or a cook. However, asking the caretaker to maintain the cleanliness of the room where elderly stays is fine.

Yes, we should not ask for any domestic chores , if we contract them for medical care. - from my experience.
All the observations are very relevant and true. Thanks for the agency name shared.

[GoCool]

For your specific situation I strongly suggest APD. Basically it’s a home based dialysis machine which reduces the infection risk and all the headache of dealing with care takers. You will eventually recover the cost of the machine and most importantly peace of mind instead of having a care taker. Also the therapy happens overnight so that day time is left free. PM me if you need any further help or info.

Originally Posted by karan86

We asked the doctor about automated peritoneal dialysis and the trouble with that is that in my father's case, it needs to be plugged in for 12 hours every day. It's simply too much compared to four sessions of an hour each for the manual procedure.

Take another opinion from a different doctor on this. Also the risk of infection is high doing it manually. So better to spend more hrs with the machine. Anyways it will be done over night during sleep.

[1985Darkkid85]

Finding reliable caregivers are always a challenge, even in a larger city like Bangalore

We use the service of Spandana in Koramangala to cater to my 102 year old Grandma.

The service has been pretty good, except for a few misses.

All the girls are extremely chatty & watch a lot of T.V, but I suppose that comes with the territory

We have also hired from Health first nursing care, Bangalore & found the caretakers to be benevolent & respectful.

Kindly D.M me for direct referrals!