The Nhs and complaints

[aliviel27]

I have had a lot of experience of the NHS unfortunately. I started to have health problems after my daughter was born in 1990 and it has gone from bad to worse. I am a qualified nurse myself who did mostly psychiatric nursing and became so disillusioned with the appalling way that the patients were cared for, that that I never went back.

Arrogance plays a big part.. Y'know the Consultants who think they are Gods and that you should kneel before them...They are so busy boasting that they lecture and that they are so, so experienced..Frankly most of them are pathetic individuals who really should try to listen a little more carefully.

I am not impressed with titles and I am not in awe of them. If a person has more money than me, that, in my opinion does not make them a better person.

I do believe however if I had gone to my doctor's surgery in a big, flashy car, with gold dripping off of me I would have probably been taken more seriously.

I don't have money..however I make up for it by being pushy and out spoken, but in a nice way.

There is a pecking system within the NHS. The Consultants are at the top and then everyone else is beneath them. The problem is that no one seems to question the Consultants opinion and even though they suspect an error has been made no one is willing to put their head on that block.

I have complained to the NHS a number of times and they dance around you. I am methodical and persistent and I was having problems keeping up with them. The Ombudsman in my case was negotiating with the NHS. Their medical adviser, a retired nurse, who in my opinion was not qualified enough to deal with my case,was a friend of the chief operating executive of the hospital. You will get no justice when they are as friendly as that.

Now after many years I am of the opinion...shout out as loud as you can..in any way you can.

If you are in a lot of pain and they won't listen to you go to accident and emergency.

Try to get your story published, in a blog, in a newspaper, on the TV, even hand out flyers. They want you to go away...quietly. Don't.

I have wasted thirteen years of my life complaining.. I started when I was in my thirties and I am nearly fifty :eek: . They have treated me in the most appalling way.. I think they know what has happened but don't want to do anything about it because so many doctors are involved.

Time for change I think!

[justice4all]

Keep it up Rainbow Warrior !

For evil to triumph the good need only be silent ( 'scuse the paraphrase ). I agree. If you're quiet and compliant, like I was, they abuse you quietly. Once you start to complain they blacklist you on their computers, whilst failing to use that VERY EXPENSIVE ( to us workers who are paying for it ) equipment to put the truth and the necessary MEDICAL info on.

So I agree. My painfully learned advice is : IF YOU SUSPECT THEY ARE NOT TREATING YOU RIGHT START OUT LOUD AND GET LOUDER AND LOUDER ALL THE TIME, OR THEY WILL KILL YOU IN THE END, like they did my friend Jim, who was quiet, and trusting, and when the quack said he had arthritis in the shoulder ( at age 32 ), which he didn't have, the quack's delay permitted the cancer which killed this gentle giant in June this year, to get well and truly through his body. Aren't five minute checkups great Mr Blair of Blair legacy fame ? I trust you and Brown and all those fine bastions of integrity in Parliament don't ever have more than a five minute checkup and that from seeing your quack to getting treatment takes 120 weeks or more. Were that not so you could be seen as being the more equal pigs that tend to get revolutionised out of the way in the progress in human democracy !

[jooms]

Doctors, consultants, etc can be very charming, very skillfull, very knowledgeable, very experienced and so on and most of the time do a good job but you see the other side of their characters when medical error is concerned. Untruthful, defensive, deceptive, arrogant. And the institution they work for and the medical establishment, and their union will back them as far as they believe the truth can be supressed. The government, of course, wants "nice" statistics to fool the electorate that it is doing a good job in providing a good health service and loyal civil servants are rewarded for helping the government to do this. Apart from negative publicity they don't want to lose money in compensation claims although parliamentarians' expense claims are alright.
we blame the NHS standards for medical errors, then we blame the NHS Complaint Procedures for not investigating our complaints properly. Then we blame the Ombudsman for not being impartial. "This is a good system" says the politician who is not involved in any of the complaints but who approved the system to start with.
Take your complaint to the politician, take your dissatisfaction of the complaint system to the politician, and let the media know that you have done this. Politicians only act on media pressure.
Too many people do not complain. Too many complainants give up.
Use the internet and the media to publicise the shortcomings of both the politicians and the systems (NHS Complaint Procedures) they have devised and form action groups. The aim of the establishment is to suppress dissent, to keep complaints confidential (secret), to isolate, deter, and stigmatise complainants.
Complainants have to unite together and to shout aloud because, if they don't, the situation will never change.

[nil by mouth]

Does anyone know the law on one person peacefully protesting outside a hospital?

That would be one gray haired mother of 4 and grandmother of 1
with a placard, who feels so strongly at the way RNOH Stanmore has treated my daughter and labelled us that the embarrassment that I once felt will not be a problem. I tried complaining and as you all know it is a waste of time.

[craigwalsh]

Does anyone know the law on one person peacefully protesting outside a hospital?I thought about doing this myself, so I did some research.

The main issue seems to be that you can't do this on NHS property because it is considered "private" property --- even though it is owned by all of us. You could ask the NHS for permission: perhaps speak to their press office. I think it highly unlikely they will give you consent.

You can, however, conduct your small, peaceful protest on public land. The issue here seems to be that you can't block the road, pavement, etc. But as long as others can pass unhindered, you can do your protest. I spoke with the relevant local policing officer to get a better understanding of the rules, and to give him advance notice. He seemed to be very appreciative of this: I think most protesters don't contact the police in advance.

In the end I didn't conduct my protest. I wish I had! This website, instead, is my peaceful protest against the NHS.

If you do stand there with your sign please send us photographs so we can post them here. Perhaps it will encourage others to do the same thing.

[Tomsanguish]

Hello,

My story is about the lack of care and lack of medication given to my dying father.
Thomas Milner is Case No.6 of the Patients Association Report 27/8/09.
It has been a complicated affair due partly to the time wasting proceedures of the NHS complaints system.
Last week 21/9/09 I received a letter from Sir Andrew Cash OBE which listed times of set up and refill of my father's syringe driver (morphine pump/drip).
These times were erroneous. We have the medical notes.
The original Doctor who had failed to 'consider and calculate' the extra morphine that had been given to my father, on top of what was being given by the 'drip', left this morphine pump driver holding just 10mgs. morphine over a 55 hour period. This same Doctor 'reviewed' the case again prior to Sir Andrew's letter being sent out. This Doctor tried to block me getting the medical notes back in April 2006, but WE HAVE THEM and so know when, where and how much medication he was given.
The Healthcare Commission said that 'the amount in the syringe driver was low in the circumstances'.
A Doctor from the Sheffield Hospital Trust telephoned me 24/9/09 after I had contacted Sir Andrew Cash's office to tell of the ERRONEOUS listings in his letter.
When I asked this Doctor if he and the Hospital would stand by the times and dates that were in Sir Andrew's letter he said 'NO'!
I am still awaiting a reply from Sir Andrew Cash OBE, Gordon Brown, P.M., Andy Burnham, Health Secretary, Christine Beasley, CNO, Liam Donaldson CMO and other interested parties for an explanation for the misleading, not true, wrong, erroneous writings penned by the Chief Executive of the Hospital in another attempt to hide the facts.
In the meantime you may wish to see the full details of this story at www.tomsanguish.com
GOD HELP US ALL AND SHAME ON THEM!

[Tomsanguish]

Unfortunately our experience is not an unusual one.

The Patients Association Report covered 16 cases but they have been inundated with calls from people with similar stories.

The NHS is run like an old boys club. Jeremy Laurance the esteemed Health writer wrote in the Independent:
'A "CULTURE of blame" in the NHS cause doctors to close ranks against patients when things go wrong and withhold information.'

see also: nhsexposed.com run by a NHS Doctor Whistle blower and sin-medicalmistakes.org to see things how they REALLY are!

We are involved with various patient support groups and an online emailing group which includes NHS workers - word is out on the streets the nhs sucks!

see also: nhs-suspension.org to read how NHS workers have been treated if they dare comment or disagree with the 'men in suits'. And see 'NHS whistleblowers' at tomsanguish.com to see how eminent Dr's have been treated when they dare criticise the NHS Chiefs!

Britain ranks No 18 in the World Health Organisiation ratings behind countries like Malta!

[craigwalsh]

see also: nhs-suspension.org to read how NHS workers have been treated if they dare comment or disagree with the 'men in suits'
Prowled the website looking for that website without (initial) success. Finally found it at:

http://www.suspension-nhs.org/

Based upon some of my experiences with the NHS, which led to the creation of this website, I think there are more people working for the NHS who should be suspended! Equally, I readily acknowledge that the "men in suits" probably suspend the wrong people, and leave the others in place.