The NHS constitution in Oldham is a discriminative propaganda exercise.
The NHS constitution and NHS Choices are collections of fundamental ethics and orthodox rubrics supposedly acting as modern day gatekeepers to the founding principles of the NHS, that good healthcare should be available to all, regardless of wealth. When the NHS was unveiled in July 1948, it was established with three primary ideologies:
• “that it meet the needs of everyone”
• “that it be free at the point of delivery”
• “that it be based on clinical need, not ability to pay”
The NHS constitution states “The NHS is founded on a common set of principles and values that bind together the communities and people it serves – patients and public – and the staff who work for it.”
Absolute tosh the NHS in Oldham, I am sure the same is applicable elsewhere, has several primary demographics for which non-conformism becomes discriminative exclusion further bolstered by the actions and language of medical trusts and the combination of local politicians and their party cohorts in parliament. You must of course remember that the word discrimination has been hijacked by the self-serving to actually become a term that is in itself discriminatory. In antiquity, discrimination meant anyone whose treatment or considerations were excluded because their individual merit fell outside predefined bias and predisposition as to what was considered median. The median in contemporary standing is the family unit consisting of two adults with children or the intention to have children. Along with the self-abusing demographic excused as symptomatic of social circumstance and certain minorities championed by modern discriminative definitions the family unit is the target group for the NHS and local council in Oldham all other considerations and interpretations of the NHS constitution and treatment under this constitution come secondary to this archetypal definition of everyone. The NHS constitution states “It is there to improve our health and well-being, supporting us to keep mentally and physically well, to get better when we are ill and, when we cannot fully recover, to stay as well as we can to the end of our lives.” Absolute bunkum how does this equate with my experience when needing diagnostic and surgical medical services in 2011/2012, as I could not select where I saw a specialist, where I had a simple ultrasound scan, where I had a pre-op or which hospital conducted my operation. In fact, with the exception of visiting a diagnostic specialist I was unable to have any tests or procedures anywhere in Oldham in spite of working and paying contributions in the municipality for almost thirty years. What did happen was that every timeframe target was missed as I took up my position as a victim of discriminative policy occupying the end of every virtual queue. Despite being, factual and indicative of discriminative practices in Oldham the family masses and self-important local elites will not like my next comment but it remains accurate. I find it disgusting that The Royal Oldham Hospital can ignore the requirements of tax-paying adults yet provision a new £44m women and children’s unit in 2012. Oldham’s population has been encouraged to increase to the unsustainable level of City classification whilst being unable to provide a long-term taxpayer with a five-minute ultrasound scan appointment after a ten to twelve week wait when I was told the wait would be 3 weeks, clearly this is because resource and service provision cannot cope. Every day I waited; bones in my shoulder tore into the tendons within the shoulder leaving me with a totally preventable condition for the rest of my life. Then in May 2013 the very same hospital allocates another £4.4 million so that children, who make up one quarter of A&E visitors, can have a private A&E department with 50% the volume of patient cubicles set aside for everyone else. This discriminative prioritisation is why adults who have contributed the most and have asked for the least cannot have treatment in their hometown. It also explains why the negligence of the aged like my 70-year-old mother has been allowed to become socially acceptable bolstered by the political language of burden that has pitted young against old. Let us remember that just this past week David Cameron has been championing the right of multi-millionaire Margaret Thatcher to have a multi-million pound funeral paid for by the British public, which he seems to consider justified. My mother had a total thyroidectomy several years ago and until a week ago had not had her thyroid hormone levels checked for over 2.5 years. Yet the NHS in Oldham and elsewhere can supply millions of self-inflicted obese people, often hiding behind non-existent self-diagnosed imaginary conditions, with Weightwatchers vouchers, carers and surgical procedures. Oldham politicians appeal to the language of family and minority I have lost count how many times the current OMBC leader has related policy to his own children in his articles. These are Oldham’s core voting majority the rest of us without minority status or a life structured around population expansion are expected to pay the highest comparative taxes but occupy the end of every local queue.
I am 46 not 76 and for over two and a half years I have been in pain to differing degrees all day every day after suffering severe incurable tendinosis which was caused to a significant degree by the extended period between visiting my local GP and eventually having surgery and a correct diagnosis. In actuality, it was almost five months post subacromial decompression surgery that I eventually received a correct diagnosis after undertaking an MRI scan, which was only conducted because I had threatened legal action against the hospital. My initial condition was caused by and was the body’s response to repetitive manual work and poor provision of suitable working equipment and manual worker H&S not poor diet, lack of exercise, too much exercise, smoking or social deprivation. So what does the NHS do for me now? It does nothing but ask me every six months how my shoulder is because I manage the condition myself by going to the gym four to five times per week to strengthen the muscles to compensate for the tendon injury and stretch my damaged shoulder to retain flexibility. I take 2000mg of Ibuprofen every day and average just three to four hours sleep per night because of discomfort when lying on my back. I cannot sleep on my front because I have developed reflux, possibly from all the painkillers, which means if I eat or take pain relief after 8pm I wake up choking and vomiting on my own stomach acid. Under the NHS fat people (disregarding the small percentage who’s condition is symptomatic of health problems and not the cause), yes I said fat, get free weightwatchers vouchers, smokers get targeted support, religious people get chaplaincy and equivalent services for other religions paid for out of the NHS budget but I have to pay for my gym membership as the NHS will not, even though the only legitimate claim for funding is mine. Something is drastically wrong when there are large sums of money allocated to the NHS that are diverted to religious counselling which relates neither to physical nor mental health of patients but to the evidentiary devoid spirit world. Less than a year before my need for an appointment was continually ignored the Royal Oldham Hospital spent £25,000 refurbishing a prayer room. Similarly the unending support for the self-inflicted self-abusers the majority of whom place both the cause and care responsibility of their own conditions on society because of dubious new ailments such as food addiction whilst those of us sick or injured due to the unforeseen and poor quality employment opportunities borough wide get no help at all.
Nothing changes! 15/04/2013 after suffering severe unbearable sciatica for three weeks, I begrudgingly visit the doctor to hopefully secure a referral, silly me. Monday is triage day no guaranteed emergency appointments but you will receive a phone call in the next hour. My telephone conversation results in a prescription for extra strong addictive painkillers and a leaflet of stretching exercises. Generic triage treatments for the discriminated middle-aged Oldham man are extra strong painkillers for someone who already suffers gastric reflux and a generic leaflet on stretching when I have twenty-six years’ experience of physical exercise and pre-workout stretching. I can hazard a guess as to who secured actual appointments with the doctors but I suppose I should count my blessings really. The NHS supplied my mother with psychotropic painkillers that actually altered her brain chemistry and her perception after a failed arthritis operation locked her thumb in place and left her in a worse situation than she was before the operation.
Forward to July 2013 and the NHS choose and book service, for two weeks my partner checked for an appointment at any of the nine hospitals listed and not a single one was available. She registered with the Royal Oldham Hospital who stated they would provide an appointment by the 23/08/2013 that date of course came and went without any appointment being allocated. On the 10/09/2013 they wrote to her stating, they were trying to find her an appointment and that she should not go back to her doctor or register again for an appointment, clearly, this letter was about them covering their failure to meet the terms of their own NHS policies. My partner has now received her appointment for diagnostic tests at the Royal Oldham Hospital in December 2013 a wait of over 5 months. If your seriously ill and not one of NHS Oldhams target demographics there’s a good chance you will be dead before diagnosis.
Freedom of Information request – Cost and effectiveness of Hospital Chaplaincy Services
Dear Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, Can you please provide details of the following: (1) The cost to the trust of Chaplaincy & equivalent services for other religions in the financial years 2011/2012 & 2012/2013? For the year 2011/12 the total expenditure for the Spiritual Care Team was £250,922 and for the year 2012/13 the total expenditure for the Spiritual Care Team was £224,419. (2) Does the trust have any statistical evidence (not opinion) that the provision of non-medical religious counselling services has any positive impact on patient recovery rates or reduces mortality levels? No (3) If the answer to question(2)is no; does the trust have any plans to make Chaplaincy & equivalent roles purely voluntary so the money can be allocated to services that can positively impact health outcomes? No.
© chronic-oldham (2013)