The More it Changes.....

I haven't written much lately.... like many of my friends I tend to write here when I'm upset, angry or just generally pissed off with life... which in recent years means pissed off with the latest outrage perpetrated by the failing and unfit for purpose mental health service.

Suffice to say... my wife is no longer subject to the NHS Mental Service.... she is in a private residential care home in the late stages of vascular dementia...

Other than that situation, which I have had some years to acclimatise to, and have, i think, now come to terms with it.... and with that understanding the guilt i have been racked with has evaporated.....

However... I still work with the professionals... hopefully keeping them aware of the implications of their work on carers and service users alike.... helping to redirect them where necessary... support the good work they do... challenge the shortcomings...

I have met, and meet regularly, many wonderful, compassionate and praiseworthy individuals within the services... however... i also meet and deal with a whole load of totally useless, destructive imbeciles... and frankly... many of them should not be allowed to work with vulnerable people... these people have to be brought into line or removed...

Lets look at a couple of examples....

My wife is in care under a section 117 having been sectioned under the mental health act. The CCG contacted me to arrange a review of her condition to ensure she is still entitled to receive the funding. Well, she is on a section 117... so she is.. whatever their review shows. The point actually was to confirm the proportionate split between medical care and social care...Had I not known that... for the 7 weeks it took to let me have the decision... which also referred to keeping the funding... i could well have had a breakdown... it was stressful enough even knowing the true situation.

I raised these issues with the CCG and eventually had a meeting... with sone very senior officers.... i explained exactly why i felt their performance was a waste of money, inept, unempathetic... they listened intently... we spoke of being open and transparent... of keeping promises....

I was thanked for sharing my story... for making things clear and reminding them why they work in healthcare. The most senior person said "We are all highly trained medically and in social services but we just do not understand the implications of what we do on carers and service users"

For god sake... what sort of twat would take action, impacting on a vulnerable persons life and health, without knowing the implications of that act... these people ar ein the wrong profession if they need me to spell it out... it should be second nature... and they should always know the implications of their actions... i find this situation totally unacceptable... an organisation like the CCG being led with people who say they dont know what they are doing.

Lets look at the Adult Mental Health Service. The reputation is so bad, deservedly so, that doctors don't come... they cover with locums... it would be useful if these locums were trained.

With mental health there is a programme about clustering patients... it is a single central tool to allocate the appropriate treatment to each patient... yet consultants can tell service users "Clusters don't matter.... they are just there to satisfy the insurance comapny"...  Why are these people not trained... perhaps the reason the service falls so far short of the agreed targets... which are set too low anyway.... for patient clustering is that the clinicians don't know the scheme exists, or if they do... what iti is for.

More generally.... what if a dementia patient presents for treatment at a unit which they don't usually attend.... well... if they do... they will not tell the staff they have dementia... no-one will know... serious mistakes in treatment can ensue.... leading to serious illness or even death...

Why is this? The commercial giants who provide the software to the hospitals will not allow links between trusts so that patients records cannot by accessed by other units.... hence a dementia patient will be treated as though they do not have dementia... often with catastrophic effects. Of course this i true of other conditions and illnesses.... dementia is the one i chose to single out

The leaders of our local health trusts agree we are 20% of the way through 10 year project to resolve this issue... 10 years??? Way too slow...

However... ask the Ministry of Health about this... they will tell you it is all in place and not an issue.

There are two options.... they haven't a clue what is happening on the floor in our hospitals... which seems very credible... or they are lieing... which is equally creditable.... which side is you money on??

Which of course brings us to the government... the NHS is safe in their hands... no it bloody isn't.... they are slowly dismantling it.... whether as a deliberate malicious policy or by basic stupidity and incompetence i don't know... i have my guesses.... but, well, what do you think.

i have here listed a couple of points... just a couple... of the many issues currently making the Mental Health Service such a hideous, malfunctioning shambles that no patients are safe in it's care... the service isn't safe in the hands of the government....

What do we do to change it?? I don't know... I have had the same conversation with so many professionals over the last 6 years.... they have done so many surveys to understand what is wrong... but they do sod all about it... it is just tick box strategy...

I have reached the point where i have beaten my head on the wall for 6 years.... what I do can't impact on my wife now... she is past their care... do i really want to carry on the fight.... no... i have had enough of it... i am sick of the lies, the excuses, the bullshit... and in my view it stems from the example the Government sets... perhaps the only way to change the mess is draconian... i probably stop short of violent revolution... but the government has to understand that the decent tax paying citizens detests the demolition of state health care... we need a government who will support the NHS... give it's staff the chance to perform without the beaurocratic bungling crass incompetence of the CCG getting in the way and demanding more and more papers with boxes ticked at the expense of giving care....

And then there is the Office of the Public Guardian.... don't get me started on them... or this will become way too long a read