A man with motor neurone disease (MND) alleges he is ‘treated like a piece of meat’ by his Buckinghamshire Council-appointed carers.

Robert Tyler says the people supposed to be looking after him have allowed him to fall on the floor at home and caused him so much pain by pulling him up that he cried.

A spokesperson for Buckinghamshire Council said they were ‘urgently’ looking into Robert’s claims.

The 57-year-old former building maintenance engineer, who cannot walk, also said his carers had blocked his powered wheelchair with a table, leaving him ‘trapped’ in his own house.

After being made aware of the situation, the council said it was urgently looking into the care it arranged for Robert through the Better at Home care agency, whose staff were recently assigned to visit him three times a day at his home in South Heath near Great Missenden.

Asked this week what he wanted out of his care, Robert told the Bucks Free Press: “Basically, respect as a person, not just a piece of meat.”

He added: “It makes me feel like they are only interested in making money, not looking after the clients.”

Robert’s wife Sarah admitted she was ‘disgusted’ with the situation but that it seemed that it was one particular carer who was mainly responsible for the allegedly poor support her husband had received.

She said: “He should be more caring, or he shouldn’t be a carer should he. He needs to be trained up more doesn’t he. If he treats Rob like that, I hate to think what he treats other poor patients like.”

On Monday, Robert, who is originally from Bracknell, wrote to his council social worker, telling her it was ‘the last straw’ after his carers failed to use his ‘sling’ – or hoist – properly while helping him into the shower.

He claimed they had moved him under the shower while it was cold, handed him a sponge and expected him to wash himself.

The resident told his social worker: “They dressed me, pulling up with my right arm and it hurt so much I cried. The carer told me to stop making a fuss.

“Then I slipped off the shower chair onto the floor. They then pulled me up hurting my back and left arm. When I was dressed, they made my breakfast with cold milk.”

Robert, who communicates using a voice application on his phone, told the Free Press that the carers wanted to leave him sitting in the sling in his chair all day to ‘save them time’.

Sarah added: “Apparently, we have got the wrong sling, but they are supposed to be getting us another one. I haven’t got a clue. I don’t use it because I am not trained on it.”

Robert explained that the carer who hurt him was sent back to see him on Wednesday morning, but that he refused to let the man touch him, adding: “Being woken to see that person leaning over you wasn’t nice.”

Part of the issue, Robert says, is that his carers are rushing, but also that they do not understand MND, a condition which damages parts of the nervous system and weakens the muscles, often with visible wasting.

He said: “They don’t understand motor neurone disease and what it does to the muscles.”

Other problems Robert has reported are that his breakfast has been made with too much milk and that his tea has not been mixed properly causing him to ‘choke’, while he has also been pulled out of his chair by his arms rather than being lifted under his armpits.

He also claims the carers have ‘manhandled him onto the shower chair’, trapped his foot three times while hoisting him, spoken to him in English and then to each other in their own language, and ‘expected him to move forward’ when he cannot.

Angela Macpherson, the council’s cabinet member for health and wellbeing, claimed the council was urgently looking into the issues Robert has raised.

She told the Free Press: “As soon as the client raised his concerns about his new care provider with us, we have been in touch with him and are offering support.

“We are extremely concerned at what he has reported to the council about his care and are looking into this with the provider as a matter of urgency.

“Obviously we would expect only the highest standard of provision and if this is falling short, we will seek to make alternative care arrangements for the client as quickly as possible and according to his wishes.”