outlier wrote:
For over a year, I have been trying to obtain autism services. My GP and a local psychiatrist have been backing me up for the last 7 months through the NHS complaints procedure since the local Health Trust refused to fund out of area services. Local expertise is non-existent.
Today I saw my GP to ask how to proceed because the Health Trust is months overdue in responding to my latest letter. My autism is unsupported because there are no services, and I struggle to maintain an adequate diet, among other things. I have been underweight for several years, and today learned I have lost more weight. This is only one of a number of issues related to the autism.
What my GP had to say about our local Health Trust (which covers hundreds of thousands of people) today is very revealing:
- The Health Trust is run by people who are inadequate at their jobs
- They probably do not even understand the issues raised in my letter
- It is a giant organisation and extremely slow and disorganised
- They are failing patients in general and he has many issues with them
- He is very angry at how they are dealing with my case and thinks they are lying when they say they are dealing with it
- He thinks they are trying to forget me
- He will enjoy writing to them again for me because it will also be an opportunity to vent the annoyance they have caused him in general
I might have little choice but to enter into the next stage of the complaints procedure. This stage can take about a year and may not yield results, in which case I would have to proceed to the next stage. For people with life-threatening illnesses, this would not be an option. The system is a self-serving bureaucracy.
Has anyone else had problems obtaining the healthcare to which they are entitled? Should I see a lawyer?
I think you're right about the health trust, they're incompetent in regards to your needs. You just have to realize that they will try to defend themselves and may use anything from deceit to guilt tripping to dodge accountability. Their system may be overencumbered by other cases, they may be providing services to the easily managable demographic and expect the less than easy group to give up or present an easier problem. Out of self respect, you should challenge this corporation in a court, I think they will get the message if you do so.
16 Jul 2009, 6:38 am
