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The Lowestoft Journal are reporting:
Health service complaints soar
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OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

I used to work for them 2 years ago!!!!!!!

So it was not me

regards david

Unfortunately in public service you can't say, to a patient, "I cannot abide your personality traits, go forth and ..."
Like all public pod's i've got a few. I refuse to talk to them apart from the very basic clinical questions. Not so long ago, I was considering suing a patient for defamation. Karate kicking son-in-law (also lawyer) assured me I had sufficient grounds.
Have a good day!

Dear All,

IMHO things all went PEAR SHAPED with the introduction of the GOVTs

PATIENTS CHARTER

It went into greeat detail of the rights and privileges of the PATIENT.

NO WHERE DID IT MENTION their RESPONSIBILITIES nor did it MENTION

THE RIGHTS OF THE HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS

So we had an immediate increase in complaints from pts about the staff and the services provided.

Indeed pts came to the logical conclusion that the LOUDER YOU SHOUT SCREAM RANT AND RAVE then the BETTER YOU WERE TREATED.

The reason SPINELESS MANAGEMENT did not want to deal with the complaint in a rational and intelligent manner.

So KICK STAFF threaten staff BULLY STAFF even SACK STAFF in order to appease agrieved patient.

Result staff are stressed and ****** off disillusioned demoralised off sick with STRESS RELATED ILLNESSES etc etc.

So you have less staff to deal with the wonderous patients.

So many people have left the health care professions and gone onto pastures new.

It is impossible to deal with Podiatry patients with a system which does not support clinical decisions taken by staff which

INCLUDES DISCHARGE

Unless you discharge patients from the service you CANNOT take on new referrals.

So you have waiting lists.

So you take on new referrals and increase interval between appts leading to further complaints.

Hence the mess many health PCT's are in.

regards David

Hello David,

I agree with much of what you say in your post.

I can appreciate a patient complaining if a staff members attitude is poor. I feel sure we have all worked with staff who treat patients as an interruption to their day as opposed to the reason they are employed.

I believe what you are pointing out is when a patient is unhappy with a clinical outcome then as you said they shout from the rooftops until they get what they want.

This happened to me in the past & it makes life very difficult for staff when patients complain they know of Mrs. A who still has NHS Podiatry & yet they have been discharged.

A patient once prodded me with his walking stick while telling me how crap the NHS service was. I refused to treat him & insisted he was discharged (I now wish I had pressed charges of assault) Instead of him being discharged though he was transferred to be seen by another clinician.

As clinicians we must remain professional, but to be professional our judgement should be respected.

If a patient disagrees with an outcome then they should be entitled to a reassessment by another clinician. Not just placated by managers who don't want to rock the boat.

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:)
twirly

Mandy Brooks
Brooks Podiatry
S64 0DE

Suffering a fondness for odd things.

“ Though the mills of God grind slowly;
Yet they grind exceeding small;
Though with patience he stands waiting,
With exactness grinds he all. ”

We simply must all step away from the no win no fee, you name them I'll sue them blame culture.

netizens

I was once a podiatry service manager in an area of England which had the highest elderly population in Western Europe. I had a staff of 22 WTE pods beavering away and the majority were private contractors earning big money with high motivation to continue. Few complaints ever arose form this sector.

Of course there were some issues regarding patients and full time staff most of which as I recall were trivial and reasonably easy to overcome. The policy then was to streamline the service to priority groups only and screening out was the usual place where clients became concerned and disgruntled with the service. Unfortunately the mighty pound prevailed and a new order was inevitable. In preparation for the changes I had organised ancillary services to cope with foot hygiene education. Itself quite a controversial thing to do in the early 80s but a foot health advisory service (staffed by pods) was given GP priority in the district. Amazing to think it was a quarter of a century ago. The scheme was written up in the British journal and ran quite successfully receiving several awards and citations.

However change is seldom achieved without challenge and apart from my admin role I also had a major clinical commitment. I have to admit I have asked abusive clients to leave the clinical premises on several occasions. One particular one which springs to mind, an old soldier was beside himself with discharge from the pod clinic loudly crying "he fought a world war to get his toenails cut!" Whilst sympathies lay with the old soldier my responsibility was to uphold the policy of my employer. In the end the chap was quite happy with the alternative support service but not before he caused a scene in my busy waiting room. We have tough skins us health service managers.

On another memorable occasion a patient bitterly complained about some aspect or other about the new service. Her remonstrations seemed out of proportion to the complaint and try as I might to defuse the issues nothing seemed to work on this occasion. Eventually the lady took umbrage and accused me of being impertinent and threatened to inform my superior of my insolence. Of course I was only doing my job but I took the point and said yes you must assure yourself of satisfaction and indeed inform my manager. I insisted. She then asked who he was and I said, "me!" I assured the lady, her complaint would receive the highest priority and would consist of a letter form me confirming the details I had painstakingly tried to relate to her about the new service.


toelsayer

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Davo

And the award for best rant goes to you

I make you right on all points.

especially

Thats politics for you Number of patients is greater than number clinicians therfore who are you going to keep happy?

And you are so right about the responsibilities of the patient. If some of them worked half as hard to get themselves better as i worked to get them better it would make my year!

Well done you

I once had a patient try to brain me with a dinnerplate. He was in a care home for those with dementia and had a history of violence so there was a nurse on either side of him. However he was being nice and they did not know that the napkin in his lap contained said plate he had concealed for the purpose. So they were no help.

Fortunatly for me he had arms thinner than my thumbs so no harm done. Although it DID cause me to haem him.

Shame.

Robert

Dear Toeslayer,

The I Fought The War For Free Nail Care is always my favourite.

I always replied that that is very peculiar as i thought many including my father (Fleet Air Arm) fought to defeat Hitler and the Japanese.

Also that when the NHS came into being in 1948 SHIRRROPPODYYY was not included. In fact Pod did not join the NHS until about 1971 so unless he fought in Vietnam he could not have fought for free shiroppoddy.

I also found out through discreet discussion that these people usually did not see active combat but were usually not exposed to this threat. They my have been like one of my Uncles who was sadly seconded to California by the Army for the duration. Unlike another Uncle who was on the Russian Convoys.

Amazing peoples attitudes to the receipt of free non essential care.

I have always found that those with greatest needs are the most appreciative and those with little or no need the most demanding and unreasonable.

regards David

Davo, an old but still applicable generalisation