"Well done to Jo": a paramedic's letter about really knowing our residents

Some of the best evidence of what Hale Place is really like doesn't come from us. It comes from the people who see us on an ordinary night, when nobody's watching and nothing's been prepared.

We support people to live with as much freedom and independence as possible, and that's something we'll never compromise on, but it does mean that, sometimes, despite everyone's best efforts, a fall happens. What matters most to us is how our team responds when it does.

In the early hours of 23rd July at Farmhouse in Tonbridge, one of our residents had a fall, and paramedics from South East Coast Ambulance Service were called out. It turned out she'd fractured her hip, and she was taken to hospital for treatment. What happened next says a lot about how our team looks after people, in the moments no one else sees.

One of the attending paramedics, Nikki, later took the time to write to us. What she described wasn't really about the fall at all. It was about Jo Makin, one of our senior carers, and the way she showed up for our resident and for the crew who arrived to help.

Knowing someone, properly

Nikki told us that Jo could answer every question they asked, straight away, without having to check a folder or find someone else to ask. Her age, her next of kin, her medical history, her allergies, what her normal day looks like, what "baseline" means for her specifically. Nikki said this isn't something ambulance crews come across very often. More often, she said, they're met with staff who can't answer, or who have to go back and forth for basic information, or where night staff simply don't know what day staff know.

That's not what happened here. And it's not an accident.

At Hale Place, we believe the best care is personal - noticing what keeps someone's spark alive, and building their days around it. You can't do that without genuinely knowing someone, day and night. Jo's ability to answer every question without hesitation is what that looks like in practice, at 2am, under pressure, with a resident who needed her.

Sitting with her, until help arrived

Before the ambulance even reached Hale Place, Jo had already been sitting with our resident for a good while. Nikki noticed that too, and wrote that it was obvious Jo cared about the job she does.

We don't think that should be rare. But we understand why it stands out, and we're proud that it stood out to someone who sees inside a lot of care homes for a living.

Why we're sharing this

We could have kept this one for ourselves. But Jo deserves to be recognised properly. We don't just want you to take our word for how we care for people. We'd rather you heard it from someone with nothing to gain by saying it.

So: well done, Jo. From all of us at Hale Place.