Thyroid UK

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NHS to look at Facebook posts for negative comments

Saturday telegraph, front page item,CQC (Care quality commission) new chairman has said they will look for negative comments about hospitals on facebook and other social media. They will then invetsigate the reasons for the comments in the hopes of averting Mid Staffs and Morecombe Bay catastrophies in health care.

Perhaps we need to ask them (CQC) to look on this site and see how thyroid patients are (not) treated!!

16 Replies

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Hahahaha! That's just classic. The NHS itself censors negative reviews about GPs on its own NHS website - which is why the only place people can safely post is elsewhere.

I personally had 2 negative reviews blocked by the NHS website; I could substantiate both of them with evidence. Indeed, I have a 3rd i can back up with audio evidence but I don't dare go public as I know the NHS practice will throw me off the register.

I am sure we could give them much food for thought on this site., but I wonder if anything much would be done about it.

Hi Crimple

That's what I was thinking GPs and consultant endos should look at all the feed back we patients put on here..we can't all be hypochondriacs as some GPs/consultants think..and the NHS should be ashamed of how they treat thyroid patients. especially when we have bad symptoms,,but they will only do the bare minimum of thyroid blood tests...

Birkie

Does the CQC think of HU as social media? If so, come and look and ask. (Despite the policy of trying to avoid personal comment about identifiable individual medics.)

My view, though, is that they need to have a complaints procedure of their own (whether NHS or CQC or combined) which is demonstrated to be effective before even considering trawling the web. Even saying they are looking will make some people post and post and post and post and distort what is out there.

Instead of stalking people on social media why don't they just ask patients? I'm sure we could all be VERY helpful....

I agree but it would have to be an independent survey and in a place where NHS staff are not present. I am regularly asked by stores for feedback on what I have bought or how was the delivery service. At the end of the day they can have as much feedback as they want but it is all about whether or not they take action!!! How many enquiries do they have to have, such as Mid Staffs hospital scandal- dementia patients drinking water out of flower vases- before they take action. Arrogance and paternalism are usually at the root of it,. The "bean counters" -accountants- have a lot to answer for too. Surely it is better to spend a bit more up front if it cures the problem rather than go down the penny pinching route that often solves nothing.

There is NO existing objective and fair complaints procedure. The Ombudsman is a farce. The NHS has created a system that encourages NHS GPs and hospital consultants to engage in corrupt practices and then protects them when they do so.

In fact, it's clear they are coached to use certain tactics to avoid spending money on treating people, I say this because they all play the same games from one hospital to the next in terms of diagnosis denial and defensive administrative practices (eg in the way they selectively record what you are telling them about symptoms, the way they openly ignore private diagnoses, etc)

Secondly, not many people leave their facebook profiles "open", so unless they are going to hack into people's accounts, they won't find much.

This is just a typical half-arsed, ill conceived and ill considered statement made by someone who has NO INSIGHT into what it is like to be a victim/patient of the NHS.

Absolutely typical, in fact, I need to watch myself or I could go into Full Rant Mode.

And how are they going to see them if it is in a private group or a comment by an individual with even rudimentary privacy settings - muppets!

If they cared about the comments and didn't just want to censor publicly visible ones, they'd realize that they don't have access. Or if they do, I want to know how.

Why don't they just listen to patients in person for once (or just read HU)

I had a very long phone conversation with the CQC concerning my complaint about a number of GPs misdiagnosing me. Informed them that the General Medical Council were not interested in my complaint, neither were the Professional Standards Authority (who allegedly regulate the regulators) interested in my complaint about the GMC's disinterest.

The person at the CQC sounded audibly shocked when I relayed my experience and said that the information would be useful for when they inspect the Practice. Following an inspection the Practice was deemed 'requiring improvement'. One thing to come out of the inspection was that the surgery had not taken up references for staff. You couldn't make it up!!!

Any complaint against a GP will come up at their revalidation, that is the only weapon we have. Am intending to speak with the CQC again concerning my medical records which I recently obtained.

According to Pulse online magazine, the GPs hate the CQC cos of course they're so darn brilliant at their job and don't want anyone saying otherwise.

Cinnamongirl, Thanks for that little nugget of information, I will try to remember for future. OMG not taking up references for staff. In my book they should be shot!

Could you not get this into the media? It's outrageous - so for all they know, they have paedophiles working there, or staff with bogus qualifications - and let's face it, it would'nt be the first time.

Could you raise it with your MP? (If he/she is as useless as mine then I guess not) This MUST get out into the public and political domain. I would send a synopsis to every health correspondent out there, plus some of the daily rags that like a scandal.

In my experience, when you complain to the practice, they try to throw you off the register; when you complain to hospitals they just don't respond (been waiting a year for a response); when you complain to the GMC, they close ranks with doctors (in fact, there are allegations of serious corruption there, came upon something several years ago which implicated the gmc in allowing convicted paedo doctors to keep practising); when you complain to the Ombudsman, they side with the medical establishment and come up with daft responses like that if i had stayed at the practice which failed to diagnose 2 diseases and failed to spot i needed urgent suregry, they "may eventually " have diagnosed the diseases.

As I have said before, there is NO accountability - and that's why they keep getting away with it. Like the banking sector, the medical sector is untouchable and they know it.

"There is NO existing objective and fair complaints procedure. The Ombudsman is a farce. The NHS has created a system that encourages NHS GPs and hospital consultants to engage in corrupt practices and then protects them when they do so."

This is a big problem for patients. Currently, there is no independent body who would take complaints seriously, which is why we have so many well-paid lazy hospital consultants, not doing what they are supposed to. There are few exceptions but lazy consultants outnumber decent, hardworking ones and nothing will stop this trend until we have an independent body actually looking at poorly performing consultants from our point of view.

coniston11 - completely agree with you. My complaint has been with the Ombudsman for nearly 2 years and as far as I'm concerned their only remit is to defend the NHS.

cinnamon_girl, thank you for sharing. "Informed them that the General Medical Council were not interested in my complaint, neither were the Professional Standards Authority (who allegedly regulate the regulators) interested in my complaint about the GMC's disinterest."

GMC is supposed to protect us but it is not meant to deal with "common complaints" e.g. missing diagnosis, misdiagnosis, lazy hospital consultants, poor quality of care, downright poor care etc. Patients have been saying for years that we have no place to go to when our doctors are not doing their job. Unfortunately, nothing has changed. There are really good doctors who are genuinely interested in helping patients but they are so few. I'm sorry to hear about your complaint, cinnamon_girl. I have one complaint filed at the moment. I doubt if it is going anywhere (as usual).

GMC is known as being no more than a defense mechanism for doctors

Yup, this conversation comes up and goes every now and again. I'm surprised if there was no petition or campaign to change the situation? We all know that unless there's an independent organisation, lots of patients are going to get harmed, disabled and murdered slowly on NHS! Of course, there are Good Drs but they are so few to go around everybody.