To the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary:
For Clarity - Attempt 560:
560) Complaining is a difficult process (2).
Dear Mr Clark,
Four times Andrew Marr attempted to ask Theresa May if she knew about the malfunctioning trident missile before she addressed the House of Commons and four times she veered off course like her rocket.
All that was missing was a cock crowing at the back of the BBC studio each time Mrs May denied Mr Marr an answer.
Complaining is a difficult process because far too many people follow our Prime Minister's poor example and see it as their job to be evasive. There is an epidemic of evasiveness in this country and it appears to only be getting worse.
Evasiveness is when an ombudsman informs you that just because they haven't answered your question it doesn't mean they've refused to answer it or when a senior NHS executive answers your question to them by repeating it back to you.
It is difficult not to come to the sad and sorry conclusion that honesty has been replaced by influencing skills (or lying through your teeth as it was once more commonly known).
Yesterday I attempted to find out just how many of the sick, the elderly and the dying had had their NHS CHC Assessments rejected and how many of them had successfully appealed those decisions, so I naively went to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's (PHSO) website only to discover that the PHSO, Dame Julie Mellor, doesn't collect that sort of information.
That is extraordinary.
Fortunately, I discovered;
Continuing to care? - Parkinson's UK. (is NHS continuing healthcare supporting the people who need it? Written by Parkinson's UK is association with the continuing healthcare alliance.) www.parkinsons.uk Thankfully, this timely report asks hugely important questions of the NHS and government in England.
When 80% of professional surveyed said the Diagnostic Support Tool (DST) was not fit for purpose then clearly something is drastically wrong with a system that is clearly rigged in favour of the state. That the sick, the elderly and the dying (and their loved ones) should be confronted by such a system at such a difficult time for them is inexcusable.
It is inhumane.
It is difficult not to arrive at the conclusion that the National Framework for NHS CHC is a deliberate attempt to extort money from those when they are at their most vulnerable. It is to all intents and purposes, an extortion racket. Otherwise things would be very different.
On page 17 - Righting the wrongs: The appeals process, the report states;
"Appealing a decision about NHS CHC can be time consuming, complex and distressing. Often people wait for months and even years. During that time it is likely that individuals are paying for care unnecessarily and also employing solicitors to support them through the process."
Q. Mr Clark, why aren't the victims of this inhumane and degrading extortion racket awarded - in full - the costs of having to employ the services of a solicitor in order to recoup the money that was wrongfully taken from them in the first place?
Crucially, the report carries recommendations that politicians of whatever persuasion must surely act upon;
Filling In The Blanks: Improving The Data That Is Gathered;
"In order to improve something, we need to know what is wrong. This is hard to prove when it comes to NHS CHC as so little data is collected. We know nothing about all of those who were unsuccessful. We don't know how long they waited for an assessment. Why they were unsuccessful or if they appealed. We know that healthcare professionals have huge demands on their time but, it is essential that accurate information around NHS CHC is recorded so the system can be improved and problematic areas can be tackled." (page 26)
Q Mr Clark, neither the RICS appointed Ombudsman Services:Property nor the NHS CHC regimes gather and publish data on the dreadful decisions they all too frequently arrive at. When are politicians going to heed Theresa May's instruction to them to step up, challenge vested interests and right the wrongs of shocking decisions and maladministered appeals processes?
Yours sincerely,
Steve Gilbert.
The Ombudsmns61percent Campaign is at: www.blogger.com
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