I had a phone call today – from ‘Patient Experience’ at St.
Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey – those are the people who sent me home for a week
last year with a dislocated and fractured ankle.
I had had a meeting on the 11th September this
year (that’s right, over a year after it happened) with a clinician from
Accident and Emergency. That was the first time anyone from A and E had ever
spoken to me.
It was, as you can imagine a fairly heated affair. I agreed
to it on condition that it was recorded and that I would be provided with a
copy of the meeting within two weeks. I didn’t trust them to produce a fair
version of what was said.
It was one of a long list of assurances and time limits that
they didn’t keep to. After 6 weeks I wrote to ‘Patient Experience’ and here’s
the letter I sent (minus any names);
Patient Experience
St. Peter’s Hospital
Guildford Road
Chertsey
Surrey
KT16 OPZ
22/10/13
Your Ref: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
FAO xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Patient Experience Co-Ordinator
Dear Sirs,
I have just received your letter dated 15/10/13 and
am surprised that it has taken you 6 weeks to write following the meeting on
11/9/13 and that you do not apologise for that delay.
It was agreed before the meeting that you would
supply me with the audio recording and indeed, I made it clear that it was a
condition of the meeting being recorded that I would be sent a copy.
Kindly send me a copy as agreed.
Yours Faithfully,
N.A.Harris
c/o xxxxxx
xxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx
They obviously got that letter – because today (24/10/13) I
got a phone call from ‘Patient Experience’ to tell me that unfortunately – “the
recording didn’t work”.
I’m assured I will receive a written apology.
It’s very convenient for them that it has ‘not’ been recorded
because as a result there is no independent record of what was said.
When President Richard Nixon recorded his conversations in
the Oval Office, he forgot that they would reveal all his illegal conspiracies.
As a result, when the tapes were finally revealed there were some big silences.
They didn’t just destroy the whole thing. So much more
convenient.
It makes me more determined than ever to pursue this hospital
and to ensure that real changes are made. That means clinical changes at A and
E but also changes in the way that patients are treated and complaints are
dealt with.
Me? I intend to go on repeating what I said, over and over
again whether there is a recording or not and I’ll be publishing my version of
events in the next week or so. Meanwhile this site has had the second most
popular month ever and there are still 6 days to go. That’s the best possible response to them.
Mind you, I could do with a hand from Lisa – can you bring along
your guitar. I need a protest song.
So far all I’ve been able to come up with is that old Sex
Pistols number ‘Liar’.
l
Help me sort out St Peter’s!
It would have had such an 80’s feel to it – ‘Patient
Experience’ would have sent me their ‘Mix tape’ and I could have sent them one
of mine.
T
I don’t know what I
would have put on mine – you need a style or a theme. For my part I wouldn’t have minded cassette or even reel
to reel
V
Or CD
U
But silence? This was
the recording of my meeting with the ‘clinician’ from St. Peter’s Hospital’s
negligent Accident and Emergency department – those are the ones who sent me
home for a week with a fractured and dislocated ankle.
I was so angry, I
insisted on an apology for their having wiped the ‘tape’ clean – actually I
wanted some proof in case the audio miraculously appeared at some point in the
future.
Here it is, as usual I
have removed the name of the offending person as I never expose people for
doing their job, even if that job or the way they are doing it is nothing to be
proud of.
24 October 2013
Dear Mr Harris
This letter is further
to our telephone conversation today during which I apologised for the delay in
sending the meeting notes to you, and for the CD recording of the meeting not
being available. I apologise for the technical fault that caused the problem
with the recording and unfortunately that recording is not available to be
downloaded to CD. I therefore typed my handwritten meeting notes into a legible
form for you.
I would like to
apologise once again for the distress these events have caused and hope that
the meeting clarified all the outstanding issues you wished to raise.
Yours Sincerely
Xxxxxxxxxxxx
So that’s alright
then.
Er, no it isn’t.
Neil Harris
(a don’t stop till you
drop production)
No comments:
Post a Comment