I have noticed myself becoming busy (frantic busy). This is most likely because I am starting to feel pressure being put back on me, when I was thinking I could let go of it. For the present Dad is relatively safe. I am not totally comfortable with how he is or the treatment he is getting but where he is is the best place for now. That is saying something, with my view on acute care but is the truth as I see it.
Friend's MRI scan showed something up. Something that is possibly treatable but had been left (due to apathy of doctors) to grow. Honestly, after a year of going back and forth to GP, you'd think they might have given a bit more thought and respect to her and particularly in light of fact she had pre-existing back problems.
She wants to sue for negligence. I think she has a fair case as it is only since she changed her GP to my practise that the new GP referred her to a physiotherapist who then referred her for latest scan.
What is it with doctors? Is it because someone has a diagnosis of mental illness that they automatically assume patients are 'imagining' things? Is it lack of proper listening skills, not wanting to examine too closely what is happening nor to take time to refer people on to specialists? Whatever, my friend now has more serious phsyical problems to deal with and something that even the phsyiotherapist said isn't that easy to treat.
Problem is my friend doesn't know where to start. There are trails of x rays and scans, letters to and from consultants...and the gap where the previous GP did fekk all. Different hospitals etc. She has asked me to write letters for her. Oh dear! Flashbacks a go go. Is easy enough for me to find numbers of hospitals for her to ring to get copies of x rays but I can see this woolly mammoth of a bureacracy looming ahead....and opening its enormous mouth to consume us.
We went to the PALs Officer, at local hospital, yesterday who soon claimed non existant responsibilities when friend said she was going to claim for negligence. I guess that is fair enough (she is but a mere pen pusher) but friend now has the 'Complaints' and 'Advocacy' leaflets. Ho hum! I think what she actually needs is a lawyer and a damn good one because, once you start a negligence claim, the NHS brings out the big guns (who get paid big money to make patients look like villains rather than victims).
I don't even know if there are lawyers who take on individual negligence claims (well apart from those who advertise on TV but they seem to focus on businesses not the NHS) and seems less likely if the person needs legal aid.
Nosebleed, nosebleed!!!
Sedation time.
Looking at the positives....Em passed her driving test this morning. It was her second attempt but she done really well (only 2 minor faults) and so can now look to getting about without having to cajole her fella or wait around at bus stops.
We are going to a local gig (A Ska night) tomorrow. In the meantime, I am going to work on keeping myself calm and less busy.
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Manders,
ReplyDeleteThat's awful, I hope your friend gets some kind of support through the new missed diagnosis and with getting help tackling the system. I'm just wondering which friend it is as I know from previous post that you have two who are struggling with physical ailments, one with her neck and one with her back , unless I've confused the two. But you're right about MH issues often resulting in misdiagnosis and neglect, research has shown that GP's feel disempowered by psychiatry and of course patients with MH issues pay for that, sometimes with their ives. I remember a day centre user who had persistent headaches being dismissed as being a hypochondriac a few days before she collpased and died following a massive brain tumour. There again if people take on the system their quality of life gets even worse as the NHS is basically run and staffed by ruthless psychotics. The MH charities are complicit in this stigma and discrimination, they seek out easy targets for funding. They could address the way that the NHS discriminats against patients with MH issues but they wont. They also tend to view people with MH issues as a problem. The hyocrisy of it all stinks.
Go easy yourself as system caused stress is probably the most lethal
ps
ReplyDeleteenjoy the Ska night out
Hi Norm
ReplyDeleteUmmm yes. My brain is fuzzy after a weird night. Ther unning theme was taking coals to Newcastle. Weird eh?
Both friends have had issues due to negligence. The friend with the neck problem was kept on painkillers for years. In fact it took 10 years between being in the car accident and having the MRI scan to find she had a chipped bone. Ironcially, she is now waiting for an MRI scan on her back too.
The other friend already had bulging discs but her previous GP kept inisting there was nothing more they could do (except prescribe morphine) for her...not thinking or caring that there might be an additional problem. I think in both cases it is more to do with the GP not taking their concerns seriously because once they have been referred, on proper examinations start to take place.
I think the moral to this story is that GP's should refer on sooner rather than later.
Hoping I can get my head together for tonight. Has been a busy week and my nights have been riddled with nasty dreams. Sure it will be fine when we get there.
Enjoy your weekend.
I'll tell you what it is with doctors. They are snowed under providing care to ignorant, demanding people like you. If you want the health service to function properly you should take some responsiblity for yourself. In an ideal world every ailment would be diagnosed swiftly and correctly,but this is the real world and sometimes mistakes are made.
ReplyDeleteDear Anon
ReplyDeleteAre you a doctor by any chance?
I am ignorant and demanding...
Okay let us take the first accusation. Ignorant of what...ignorant that people's symptoms are being ignored..in spite of them going back to their GP's telling them they are in pain. I am not ignorant of that. I am not ignorant of the fact that my friend now has a cyst (and I have not been ignorant to her suffering) unlike her previous GP who insisted there was nothing more they could do. Well, perhaps there wasn't but that doesn't mean they couldn't refer the friend on to a specialist who would have, I assume, scanned earlier and found the cyst before it had grown to the size of a golf ball. Or is it ignorant to question bad judgements made by doctors?
I think you are ignorant if you think it is okay for people to be in alot of pain and cast aside as if they don't matter.
Demanding...well, maybe sometimes I am, but I am not in and out of my GP's practise every week demanding treatment. I have to go once a month to discuss the medication I am on and get a prescription and I have been twice in connection with labrynthitis. There was an episode earlier in the year when blood tests went missing and every department was blaming each other for the misplacement. I don't think I was being too demanding to expect my blood tests results to be accessable.
I did freak out when I thought I might have latest flu epidemic..on reflection it could have been normal flu or another virus..as I was assessed on the phone, I went with the GP's advice to take tamiflu.
If that is being demanding then I am.
What maybe I expect is too much and that is for things to be acted on and effectively.
Perhaps if CERTAIN doctors stopped blaming patients for their own inability to pick up on things and refer them on in appropriate timescales...I wouldn't feel inclined to vent forth on negligence!!!!!
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteDoctors in the UK are not snowed under at all, precious few provide meaningful out of hours services nowadays and yet they have never earned as much money as they do now.
In the main GPs have had a cushy ride under the NHS they have also kept their traditional Victorian priviledged status which amongst other things allows them to publicly sniff at and lord it over patients and you adopt the same attitude to arrogantly dismiss the owner of this blog as 'ignorant and demanding' for highlighting through her and her friends direct experience the well documented failure of a large number of GPs to provide an adequate level of service to people with MH problems as a patient group.
I wonder where you learned to treat patients with MH issues in such a negatory and invalidating way. Let me guess.....
First, I'm not a doctor just a taxpayer, completely pissed off with funding the poor lifestyle choices of able-bodied, lazy,and feckless people on 'disability allowance'.
ReplyDeleteI am the one who buys your cigarettes, pays for your taxis and funds your nights out.I put the clothes on your back and I feed you. I pay for your medications. I pay to house you. I read your witterings, laugh at what a massive sense of entitlement you exhibit, and finally lose patience. You are owed nothing. You are the debtor.
You come to me and say, I want more. This isn't good enough. I deserve better. I'll sue you. But you know, my wallet is empty, my generosity and kindness have been abused. There is nothing left. You just don't get that do you?
Never mind, you soon will. Meantime, keep on puffing on those fags and worry that when you suffer the inevitable consequences, the NHS might just have fallen over .
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteReally.
As you wish to go off topic and personalise , I am the one who grew up in childrens homes you funded and while you looked out for you and yours, the people your money employed which you want such moral responsibility for now ,systematically abused me and many other kids they were professionally responsible for looking after because kids in care were viewed as scum back then anyway and there were no safeguards in place..
Then somebody just like you within childcare services decided to cover up the seriousness and scale of the abuse when it was uncovered because scandals are expensive as is psychiatric support for abused children.
At that point as the taxpayer was way ahead.
So you saved on quality childcare services and the cost of appropriate child abuse intervention but lost out because the extent of abuse in care homes from that era was so widespread a whole generation of children quickly progressed through the care system and other institutions into the MH system because they were essentially feral.
Of course as a taxpayer you were not personally responsible for this widespread sexual and physical abuse of unwanted children.
Nor was I , ok?
I did my best to lead a normal healthy life , I went to university but had a mental breakdown and am now diagnosed as having a severe borderline personality disorder that services cant treat because, they allege, I am too damaged to benefit from what help they can offer.
In fact they dont offer anything to feral types, another saving for the taxpayer.
Its certainly true that I do not get on with other people, I never have and even my school reports described me as being suspicious and aloof, feral behaviour that probably would have been picked up by educational psychologists under normal circumstances but behaviour that was probably just expected of children in care.
Each time I have been hospitalised its been for being paranoid and imagining I'm in physical danger.
But I sense a degree of jealousy as well as resentment in your tone so lets sum up on what you've missed out on here , I've worked when I was able to , I set up a charity at one point , I own practically nothing , I'm incapable of sustaining relationships and eke through from day to day wracked by suicidal ideation oh and the drugs dont work for me, so another saving.
I wouldnt wish this kind of life on you or your kids .
ps
I dont smoke but am suing services not for money but to encourage them to treat people with MH issues in a non discriminatory way . I am sorry that you think that trying to provide equal quality of treatment across patient groups threatens your entitlement but even sorrier still that you lack the compassion to think before you attack others.
Laugh away.
Well Norm,
ReplyDeleteI have no problem with looking after blameless kids who end up in care. That's right and proper, and I hope we've come far enough in this country not to stigmatise children. I do, however, have a big problem with those who scream on the internet about how bad their lives are, and how someone else is always responsible. I'm not saying that we shouldn't support the genuine disabled but it is a scandal that every long-term unemployed person I've ever met is 'disabled'.It's all about claiming to the max and it will stop soon. In the good times,it wasn't worth the bother. Now we have have to make choices.
Popular opinion will force a tightening of policy,and some reasonable proof of disability.
Good luck with the law suit, Norm.In the hugely unlikely event that you are awarded anything, be aware that it comes from the British taxpayer.
I also went to university.I have money these days. In the past, I had nothing. I've worked hard and so should every other person with the capability. Okay, so I wasn't put in a home, but, sometimes, I think that might have been easier.
It's just that this little thread of bloggers seem to be so disaffected.You will all shout out and say..how terrible.How could we be treated like this? Like what?
You should go and live in Japan. No tolerance there...and Mandy it will do wonders for your agoraphobia. Think of that when you're OUT tonight.
While you're composing your outraged response, remember I pay for your internet connection.
Of course, you're still asleep. Good Morning guys. Have a good day.
ReplyDelete10-15 am. You're still in bed.
ReplyDeleteIn the hugely unlikely event that you are awarded anything, be aware that it comes from the British taxpayers
ReplyDeleteWell Anonymous - do you mind if I call you that?- you've prejudged the outcome of my case and that's fine, I like people who are upfront with their prejudices but lets have some consistency here too as you'll obviously be just as outraged that the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust has wasted over £20,000 of taxpayers money defending a disability discrimination case involving less than a 10th of that .
I'm not interested in the money and the only reason that there is a court case at all is because the NHS complaints process doesnt work , a position confirmed by the Healthcare Commission before it was abolished.
I dont have legal representation, SLaM and its PCT have two of the most expensive NHS /Human Rights lawyers representing them so I think its fair to surmise that you're probably paying for their internet connections too.
So lets do the math, that's £20,000 plus going to greedy lawyers for a case that should never come to court and about half a billion pounds for an NHS complaints infrastructure that according to the Healthcare Commission shows very little evidence of resolving complaints but seems designed to perpetuate bureaucracy.
Broadband accounts are still pretty high but going out on a limb I'd bet the entrenched bureaucracy is probably costing taxpayers the most here.
Then there's your observation about every unemployed person you've ever met claiming to be disabled, its very similar to lots of other generalisations I've heard down the years intended to stigmatize certain groups.
I also note that although you predicate all your good citizenly concern on the economic downturn you spare the bankers and utter not one word about the money they've cost the taxpayer.
Interesting that.
Norm, I didn't single out the bankers. Sorry. I am not a doctor.(although, you all went off on that tack) I am not a banker. I will not/cannot go through every profession/livelihood and slag off all those who work in that capacity.
ReplyDeleteTo clarify, Norm, I did specify 'long term unemployed', which suggests that I have no problem with those who find themselves in a temporary fix. It's the gits who've been arsing about for years who decide they're disabled. Coz they get more money. Simple.Right?
Guy's, it's past eleven. Get up. Norm and I have been chatting for hours.
ReplyDeleteAnon
ReplyDeleteYou'll get your pound of flesh!!!!
But I don't think you would really want to swap places.
Sure you think this is cushy...you should try it.
End of.
Good Morning Mandy. I am no Shylock.
ReplyDeleteJust stop moaning and get a life. ...
Good Afternoon to you.
Anon
ReplyDeleteNot sure what to make of the good cop/bad cop angle.
I'd rather you hate me for what I am than try to turn me into something I am not.
Interesting that you tell me to get a life...and when I try to you say I am getting it at your expense. Actually, no tax payers fees were incurred when I went to the SKA gig. It was a gift from someone who loves me and someone who loves me went with me (and that made all the difference to me).
I will be damned, whatever I do so I have to try and do what I can, when I can.
I am sure you would think tending my garden and making cards are frivolous endeavours that should be stopped or if I help someone out (for example helping friend...the one with the back problem...de weed a car park)that I am fit for work.
Sometimes I am....and when I am I would like to work but you really should see me when I am wobbling. In fact, you, need to experience it to understand it.
As for long term unemployed. Does 20 years plus of employment count for nothing? Maybe it doesn't. I really don't know about that. I hung in there as long as I could...I have tried supported work schemes (twice) since then. I am not the idle scrounger that you think I am.
When I can, I do...which is more than many who can and never do. I actually find your comments rather hurtful in regards to my father who some have actually said 'can look after himself but chooses not to'. See damned whatever.
I genuinely try to to good. I hear alot of talk on corners but then people won't actually go public about their views. I stand by what I write and justify my reasons. Maybe that is not acceptable.
When the DLA is cut and I think it will be cut, people like you can feel satisfied that I no longer will have a quality of life I don't deserve.
Shylock or no Shylock...your justice will be served.
And perhaps if there were real 'champions' of the disabled..other than me just raging on..and believe me I get paranoid as fekk about that..cos it is a lonely place to be and for sure 'ain't it always me banging on'. Then I wouldn't feel the need to vent, because I would feel that there are people who are in better positions to fight for the rights of those who can't.
I also find this a challenging blog to read at times but deliberately targeting someone with abuse because they have a disability , even to publicly question their disability , is a form of discrimination .
ReplyDeleteI've read all the comments and Anonymous has switched tack from making more general criticisms about unemployment and disability to baiting a particular individual .
Do you now how to capture an IP?
This can be done nowadays even if people have taken steps to mask their identity.
NHS Manager
ReplyDeleteI don't know how to capture an IP and I don't think I want to start a witch hunt.
One witch has already been hunted down and she wouldn't wish to do that to someone else.
Let them keep their anonymity and this is not generosity on my part. I have never been arsed to chase after people who I fancied, let alone chase after someone who it is pretty clear I would not like to know and vice versa.
Let them have their sport, their moral high ground and their DLA tax payments back. If it makes them happy.
My view is that if you put out all this stuff into the public domain, I am entitled to respond. I'm sure most of your commenters are supportive.
ReplyDeleteAs for the NHS manager, would you like to stand up and identify yourself? As incompetent, PC, petty bureaucracies go I would say your organisation is up there with the best of them. We need more doctors and nurses and far fewer administrators. We also need people to acknowledge the right to freedom of speech,which used to be
a given but that individuals like you would take away.
Anon
ReplyDeleteI have not denied you the freedom of speech.
I have always kept my comment boxes open so anyone can respond if they choose to... Anonymously or otherwise.
I do not see any point in continuing any more communications with you because you have made it perfectly clear what you think of me. That is your right and is my right to decide when points have been made loud and clear enough.
You can continue to comment here but I don't think it would change either of our views about each other. I could be wrong but somehow I don't think so.
Hi
ReplyDeleteJust would like to say something here on your blog comments if you don't mind Mandy.
As someone diagnosed with Bipolar and Emphasymia I stick to doing some voluntary work now but in the past I worked when I was well enough and paid a lot of taxes as I know you did to Mandy. So Anonymous is not paying for the benefits we need now our own back taxes are paying.
Having said that I wonder if Anonymous thinks he is immune to becoming disabled or infirm and in need of help himself? Supposing (heaven forbid) he has an accident tomorrow or develops a disabling desease or even goes mad himself? What will he do when he finds himself labelled a scounger, when there are no disability benefits and where there are no services worth having to support him?
With such insensitivity to others distress and suffering Anonymous comes here to pick on people with disabilities but he needs to find some empathy and imagine having to cope with these problems himself.
Bye for Now
Jill
Dickens
ReplyDeleteFair play to you for putting your head above the parapit. Expect it to be shot off soon. Ha!
As for me, I am throwing myself 'whole heartedly' into one of the stalwart's of being British...that is my right to free speech.
"Pack up your troubles in your old kit bags and smile, smile, smile. While you've a lucifer to light your fag. Smile boys that's the style. What's the use of worrying. It never was worth while...so....pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and SMILE, SMILE, SMILE"
Actually, Dickens, I am not insensitive. I have a very good friend who is on disabilty allowance and I think he should get more money. But for every genuine claimant there are many malingerers.
ReplyDeleteSo I just think we should toughen up the rules as to what exactly disability is and also have more stringent medical assessments. I am not a disbeliever in mental illness,but I do believe it is a fall-back position for a lot of people who are basically fit.
Mandy...I said nothing regarding your father. I haven't read all the back-blog so I don't know his story. Furthermore, I have no intention of shooting at anyone who dares stick their head above the parapet. I am unarmed and absolutely not dangerous.
Is Anon some kind of stunt here or what ?
ReplyDeleteSomeone pretending to be an outraged Tory ?
Actually some of the truth is, large parts of the middle classes and banking sector are on Govt Welfare "incapacity benefits" because they shat on the capacity of the country to produce anything and even over-borrowed from the the banks .. Surrey was the most debt laden place in the UK when the sub prime crisis hit ..
The people who have run the country down are the admin classes part of the middle classes and aspiring bullshitters who believed we could succeed with hardly any industrial sector ....
This is fantasy island UK and everyone will go to the wall and the benefit classes that have been constructed by 25 years of policy led undermining of industry will no doubt be nailed there first and covered with socially "acceptable" prejudiced cack ..
You are as doomed as anyone else Anon ..You too are a cackspayer ..
xx
Patient Guard, how up yourself are you? I'm not pretending. Who are you?
ReplyDeleteActually, I don't care.
Mandy, You should take care. Some of these people are using you.
ReplyDeleteMandy, Do you fancy a drink at Brookes on Friday, where we can have a chat? Drinks are on me.
ReplyDeleteMary, who's side are you on?
Don't go out with this guy. He's obviously some kind of stalker.
ReplyDelete