Advice on logging an official complaint with a NHS Hospital?
03 July 2002, 05:30 PM
#3
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I wouldn't bother! I have been through it all from them screwing up an operation on my leg as a kid and the wound splitting open cos it wasn't stitched properly (negligence) and leaving a lovely scar, to my youngest son dieing as a baby through negligence of staff being unable to feed a tube into him correctly and shredding an artery and him bleeding to death within minutes! 
THEY ARE UNTOUCHABLE, THEY ARE ABOVE THE LAW AND ALL THOSE WHO SAY THEY ARNT THEN TECHNICALLY YOU ARE RIGHT BUT IT IS MADE SO EXPENSIVE/DIFFICULT TO PROSECUTE/SUE THAT THEY MIGHT AS WELL BE ABOVE THE LAW.
Everything according to the NHS is a calculated risk of the procedure necessary to treat you. Therefore anything that goes wrong was always a possibility and risk that was possible from the start.
I wish you luck with your complaint and I just hope it isn't serious. Also please forgive my ranting but as you might imagine my thoughts on the NHS are not exactly favourable and I wish it would be abolished and replaced with a medical care system that is safe and efficient.
THEY ARE UNTOUCHABLE, THEY ARE ABOVE THE LAW AND ALL THOSE WHO SAY THEY ARNT THEN TECHNICALLY YOU ARE RIGHT BUT IT IS MADE SO EXPENSIVE/DIFFICULT TO PROSECUTE/SUE THAT THEY MIGHT AS WELL BE ABOVE THE LAW.
Everything according to the NHS is a calculated risk of the procedure necessary to treat you. Therefore anything that goes wrong was always a possibility and risk that was possible from the start.
I wish you luck with your complaint and I just hope it isn't serious. Also please forgive my ranting but as you might imagine my thoughts on the NHS are not exactly favourable and I wish it would be abolished and replaced with a medical care system that is safe and efficient.
03 July 2002, 08:40 PM
#4
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Generally agree with Bravo2Zero.
A few years ago my mum went into hospital for a hysterectomy and an apparent routine operation on her bladder. During the op they cut a tube to a kidney, realised this and repaired it. After a few days of my mum complaining of pain and being told not to be so silly by the staff she was discharged. A week or so after she was rushed back in and had a further operation that discovered the repair had split therefore the ruin and removal of what was a perfectly good kidney. It was not until this happened that we were told about the original repair.
Fortunatly my parents contents insurance had legal cover and they agreed that it would be worthwhile pursuing this thru the courts. After 4 years and numerous amount of stalling tactics the NHS finally offered a settlement. At this time the court costs were more than 3 times the settlement. My parents had no option but to accept as the NHS lodged the settlement with the court which meant that if the court found less than this my parents would have been liable to their costs (this was in excess of £25k), they had to accept.
I am also very bitter about the NHS because of this.
By the way one of the consultants said that everything should be ok as the other kidney was fine. A very sobering thought.
I could go on for ages but you can probably see my point, You need to have a lot of financial back up and a watertight case.
A few years ago my mum went into hospital for a hysterectomy and an apparent routine operation on her bladder. During the op they cut a tube to a kidney, realised this and repaired it. After a few days of my mum complaining of pain and being told not to be so silly by the staff she was discharged. A week or so after she was rushed back in and had a further operation that discovered the repair had split therefore the ruin and removal of what was a perfectly good kidney. It was not until this happened that we were told about the original repair.
Fortunatly my parents contents insurance had legal cover and they agreed that it would be worthwhile pursuing this thru the courts. After 4 years and numerous amount of stalling tactics the NHS finally offered a settlement. At this time the court costs were more than 3 times the settlement. My parents had no option but to accept as the NHS lodged the settlement with the court which meant that if the court found less than this my parents would have been liable to their costs (this was in excess of £25k), they had to accept.
I am also very bitter about the NHS because of this.
By the way one of the consultants said that everything should be ok as the other kidney was fine. A very sobering thought.
I could go on for ages but you can probably see my point, You need to have a lot of financial back up and a watertight case.
04 July 2002, 01:26 AM
#6
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All hospitals have a complaints officer to deal with the large number of complaints - most of which come from scum bags wanting money for various alleged mistakes!!!
I am of course generalising and await your comments slagging me off.
It is a little known fact in the modern NHS a patient / nutter / chromosomally challenged idiot can make repeated compliants about anything and everything but due to the rules they will all be investigated and time will be wasted by a consultant replying to these no matter how stupid they are.
Write your letter - you may be surprised by the response - the system changed in 1998 and I presume most of the above incidents occured before this.
I am of course generalising and await your comments slagging me off.
It is a little known fact in the modern NHS a patient / nutter / chromosomally challenged idiot can make repeated compliants about anything and everything but due to the rules they will all be investigated and time will be wasted by a consultant replying to these no matter how stupid they are.
Write your letter - you may be surprised by the response - the system changed in 1998 and I presume most of the above incidents occured before this.
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04 July 2002, 09:42 AM
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Everything according to the NHS is a calculated risk of the procedure necessary to treat you. Therefore anything that goes wrong was always a possibility and risk that was possible from the start.
...... I wish it would be abolished and replaced with a medical care system that is safe and efficient.
...... I wish it would be abolished and replaced with a medical care system that is safe and efficient.
Take the individuals to court??? Could this work??
If its any of the first reasons then yes. If its the latter (like too many complaints/court actions thses days) then I'll keep my comments to myself.
Deano
04 July 2002, 10:04 AM
#9
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Deano
My point about calculated risks was actually getting at the fact that negligence is swept under the carpet and excused with the answer it was a calculated risk of the procedure. When my baby son died the consultant said he had only ever seen this 'tragic occurence' once before in 30 years of his medical experience. The fact is some one fcuked up, and without actually formally owning up they pretty much acknowledged they fcuked up as they fed the tube into him about 6 or 7 times when it should have normally been a maximum of 2 attempts to get it right. However it would have cost me around 7k to take it to court and there was no guarantee they could prove someone was guilty and at the end of the day it still wasnt going to bring my son back.
Also like my operation on my leg, it wasn't stitched as it should have been, only had surface stitches. Now that is just a plain error. Where is the calculated risk in not stitching someone up properly? Even the nurse who treated me when it split open and bled everywhere couldn't believe the bodge job that had been done and totally slagged off the moron who had done the original stitching and lack of them. When I tried to take it anywhere I just run up against brick walls in every direction I went.
Of course I know there are calculated risks say for example when someone has heart surgery they may well die. What I can not accept that is when the NHS screws up it puts everything down to calculated risks when it is pure and simple negligence.
So Deano, don't ******* patronise me by saying my suggestions to medical science would be greatly welcomed! I saw what happened to my son and I know someone fcuked up. [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]
My point about calculated risks was actually getting at the fact that negligence is swept under the carpet and excused with the answer it was a calculated risk of the procedure. When my baby son died the consultant said he had only ever seen this 'tragic occurence' once before in 30 years of his medical experience. The fact is some one fcuked up, and without actually formally owning up they pretty much acknowledged they fcuked up as they fed the tube into him about 6 or 7 times when it should have normally been a maximum of 2 attempts to get it right. However it would have cost me around 7k to take it to court and there was no guarantee they could prove someone was guilty and at the end of the day it still wasnt going to bring my son back.
Also like my operation on my leg, it wasn't stitched as it should have been, only had surface stitches. Now that is just a plain error. Where is the calculated risk in not stitching someone up properly? Even the nurse who treated me when it split open and bled everywhere couldn't believe the bodge job that had been done and totally slagged off the moron who had done the original stitching and lack of them. When I tried to take it anywhere I just run up against brick walls in every direction I went.
Of course I know there are calculated risks say for example when someone has heart surgery they may well die. What I can not accept that is when the NHS screws up it puts everything down to calculated risks when it is pure and simple negligence.
So Deano, don't ******* patronise me by saying my suggestions to medical science would be greatly welcomed! I saw what happened to my son and I know someone fcuked up. [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]
04 July 2002, 09:09 PM
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Dear all,
Just for the record, I'm not looking to sue them or similar, I am mearly looking to log a complaint about the way things were handled. If I want to sue I'd be on the phone to my solicitor.
But, I'm only too aware the NHS has limited funds and I'm not interested reducing that further, and anyway in this case what they did or rather didn't do, only caused emotional distress - hardly worth suing over - but worth logging a complaint about.
AVI - the hospital in question was the ROYAL SURREY, Guildford.
Also, I don't want to waste anyones time, but do thing they need to dragstically improve the hand-over procedures they employ at the Royal Surrey, as the main problem was communication.
Alex
Just for the record, I'm not looking to sue them or similar, I am mearly looking to log a complaint about the way things were handled. If I want to sue I'd be on the phone to my solicitor.
But, I'm only too aware the NHS has limited funds and I'm not interested reducing that further, and anyway in this case what they did or rather didn't do, only caused emotional distress - hardly worth suing over - but worth logging a complaint about.
AVI - the hospital in question was the ROYAL SURREY, Guildford.
Also, I don't want to waste anyones time, but do thing they need to dragstically improve the hand-over procedures they employ at the Royal Surrey, as the main problem was communication.
Alex
04 July 2002, 09:39 PM
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Hmmm. If in doubt swear at someone. 
I'm sorry if you suffered personally from negligence. but. Everything in this life from getting out of bed, crossing the road, ragging the **** of a scooby, taking a panadol, any medical procedure - has risks. Some small. some large. You can't wish them away. some can be minimized. they can never be eliminated 100%. If someone screwed up , then yes they should be held accountable - I certainly didnt deny it. I certainly can't put the clock back. But the assumption that anything we do can be made 100% risk free is bollox. Its why I do a nice relatively safe office job - I couldn't live with the thought that every day I had the ability to cause people the sort of problems you've described.
Deano
I'm sorry if you suffered personally from negligence. but. Everything in this life from getting out of bed, crossing the road, ragging the **** of a scooby, taking a panadol, any medical procedure - has risks. Some small. some large. You can't wish them away. some can be minimized. they can never be eliminated 100%. If someone screwed up , then yes they should be held accountable - I certainly didnt deny it. I certainly can't put the clock back. But the assumption that anything we do can be made 100% risk free is bollox. Its why I do a nice relatively safe office job - I couldn't live with the thought that every day I had the ability to cause people the sort of problems you've described.
Deano
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