I've been prompted to seek a way to engage with the NHS due to the experiences of my neighbours in dealing with the NHS and social services.
From the up it looks like actually communicating with real people is virtually impossible, phones don't get answered, voice mails don't get returned etc etc, and the posts on this forum seem to echo this statement.
So, how does this forum achieve what it claims to be there for? Or is it a distracting way to semi- encourage patients and carers to vent off steam, that might be otherwise better used in resolving issues?
A casual look at the listed administrators show no real engagement with the forum and quite old posts, so it seems from the evidence that this was set up and abandoned quite quickly.
If this is so how can patients and there carers have a real stake in the future of the NHS and health care provision in the UK?
Happy posting everyone!
Written by
karma101
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Hi Karma101, you are correct this particular site is very poorly used and has always been so. However not to daunt your good intentions maybe the healthwatch site (who are in all parts of the country) might be of help to you and they also have a public forum on site connected to facebook & twitter just like healthunlocked is I beleive. Or you can simply contact the NHS services that are not working correctly and feed back your comments. Good luck with finding what is best for you to air your opinions, even local CCGs have a feed back option.
I've never had pd (??) but I have had some experience of trying to negotiate vagaries of the NHS and trying to contact the 'right' person.
I think the person who said "simply contact the NHS services that are not working correctly" maybe has not had that experience. I tried this 'simple' approach to find out why my son's illness was being ignored apart from a couple of negligent attempts to treat him, but nobody responded and a few weeks later he was dead. All the negligent parties including his GP then began a campaign of back-pedalling and lying, and 'simply' refused to investigate what actually happened. I then 'simply' contacted the Health Services Ombudsman for a complete ‘drains up’ investigation including of the hidden evidence revealed much later of the correct care pathway. After all, Doctors had lied about that to the Coroner at my son's Inquest, and they were happy with that. The Police were not bothered either.
After the Ombudsman's first devastating response "it's not worthwhile investigating" it took many years of frustration asking ‘why?’, and to have them look at it again. All I’ve had from them so far is ‘Oh yes, the GP had lied about doing a proper investigation’ (like I had said) and ‘Yes the NHS Trust should have provided the proper care process years ago’ (also like I had said, and had complained about before my son died); then to add further harm and insult ‘but even if they had provided the proper care it would “probably have made no difference”’ (actual words). Oh, and ‘p.s. your experience of the negligence before and after your son died, doesn’t count… so you’re probably lying i.e. not admissable or useful as evidence’.
This is a system out of control and without any recourse via complaint. This is the new NHS where proper care 'probably' doesn’t matter and nobody is likely to be responsive or honest if you complain about it ('simply', or otherwise); all supported and condoned by Government systems costing millions that are supposed to be monitoring and spending our life-long NHS contributions (as taxes) in the best possible way.
In fact those corrupt systems have now destroyed my trust in any so-called Professional to give a balanced or honest judgement especially when a salary may be compromised by their admissions. More power for whistleblowers to come forward, PLEASE!
If you want anything to change, go to local or national meetings where you can have your say. Start by going to your local GP’s PPG meetings or CCG meetings, as volunteers. Go to 'healthwatch' and 'carers' meetings. Demand to see people in charge, and demand what you have a Right to, under much under-publicised NICE Guidelines, NHS national ‘Policies’, and UK Acts of Parliament providing your Rights. Don’t expect your Doctor to know anything about any of these, however. They didn’t in my son’s case, and have shown no desire to learn, either.
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