After my get together in Fareham yesterday with the ladies from The Gosport War Memorial Hospital cover up and tomsanguish/ NHS palliative care Sheffield I did a bit of Google-ing and came up with about 67,900 hits for NHS horror stories.
The thing that struck me during the “meeting” was how much alike we were, we had all been dumped on by the NHS complaints system from a great height, our relatives had all been subjected to third world country treatment before they died, and we had all been lied to, misinformed and treated badly by the “Senior Management”.
But the point that hit home mostly was that we all felt alone when setting out on the long and winding road that passes for a “Complaints System” in our health service.
We all had our horror stories, we were all “damaged” by the complaints system, we were all frustrated and angry, but in a way we are all still alone.
Media coverage is good for the cases that pertain to hundreds of patients dying, but for the relatives of a single death the media do not really want to know, there is not enough mileage in it for them, I know because I sent “M”s ‘story’ to them all, papers, TV and radio and not one replied or showed any interest.
Even my “campaign” to bring together people who have been badly let down by The NHS wasn’t a runaway success, and from the meeting came the feeling that there is a lack of impetus by relative to get involved, whether it is because people don’t want to “rock the boat” or that it is too painful to keep going over the death of a loved one I don’t know.
But if only half of the Google results on ‘NHS horror stories” are true there are some 30,000 people out there who, if they got together could make a significant difference to the complaints system, there are many bloggers out there who bite the bullet and try to change things, but if there were a central site where those 30,000 people could post their experiences and 30,000 stories were sent to the media and the Government maybe, just maybe the ‘powers that be’ would finally take notice of bereaved relatives.
It is just an idea I am toying with, but what is needed is the backing from those relatives, and the strength to let the country know what is really happening to patients, I would be happy to start a new blog and call it “NHS-the real story” or something along those lines, all ideas welcome.
If you are interested contact me at angusdei@live.co.uk and perhaps together we can make a difference.
Angus
Angus Dei on all and sundry
AnglishLit
Angus Dei politico
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