Monday, August 13, 2012

Secondly, Do No Harm

It was a long day yesterday. Still no parole answer, and the crazy, stressful juggling that accompanies every payday, recently. So the last thing I needed was for my boss on the gardens to tell me that Healthcare had altered my medical status from Labour 3 ("officially a wreck") up to Labour 2 ("only slightly knackered").
Those with long memories, or access to Google, may recall that last December the GP swiftly listed me as Labour 3 on arrival and rescued me from the Carps workshop and into Education. To be told that this had changed, without so much as a cursory examination by someone who knew what a medical school looked like, was both frustrating and annoying. New and laborious gardening duties hove into view, with the prospect of significant pain or a nicking for not working. This had become a Big Deal.


Fair do's on my boss, who shoved me in the direction of Healthcare to try to sort this out. All afternoon I was up and down to Healthcare, trying in vain to get them to speak to me. Three nurses, a practice manager, and the GP all with their feet up in an otherwise empty building telling me that they were "too busy". They remained too busy when I reappeared at "treatment time" (shades of Nurse Ratched).
They were still too busy all this morning. They did find the time to talk to several staff about this, but not a second spare to talk to me. And I had only two simple questions - who altered my status without any examination? And on what medical basis?
Instead of dealing with the crap they had unleashed, they have been hiding away, a huddle of selective mutes. That in itself suggests that they feel they may be on thin ice.
I am fed up with being dismissed by nursing staff who view prisoners as an inconvenience. A paperwork blizzard is going to be coming their way, possibly including a writ for misfeasance in public office, unless they sound a swift retreat and begin to act like healthcare staff. With men too afraid to book appointments lest they forget them and get hammered, with men having long standing medications removed, and with men being spoken to like dirt, then it is only reasonable that we prisoners hold these petty tyrants to account.

5 comments:

  1. Be careful Ben... I know you're suffering at the moment, but perhaps it would be better to wait until after you hear from the parole board to sort this one out?

    Just keep playing their game a tiny bit longer.

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  2. Its just terrible when fellow human beings treat others in their so called 'care' in this way. I have had it up to here with similar stories to do with mental health care. Being stripped of care that was received for over tweleve years by a youngster barely out of college with no medical experience or qualifications based on a very biased 'assessement'. I went through all official complaint chanels (I can be very bolshie), and yet still through their hiding behind officialdom and complete lack of empathy they beat me into submission.

    The only way forward for me at this stage is to accept their 'offer' of no entitlement and say yes to the few crumbs in the form a reassessment hopefully with someone a little more mature in outlook but in all likelihood, it will probably have the same 'no entitlement' to anything that might allieviate the suffering I experience as a result.

    You know what pisses me off about all of this? Its of course the heartless government in office, but also all the staff who repeat coldly that it is a government directive and nothing to do with them. Talk about shirking their responsibility, its not David Cameron's signature on letters telling us we have no entitlement; its theirs and that they hide like they do shows lack of compassion and cowardice.

    These staff are pathetic and the system stinks; it always has but never more than it does today.

    Do people really find it preferable to hurt their fellow human beings who could even be their own brother or sister? Or, how about standing up for vulnerable people in care? Oh, yes it could mean losing their jobs, well what the hell sort of job is it now anyway?

    People in health and caring professions will just end up as sadists unless they stand up for the right to care and make use of the healing skills they thought they might have once had.

    Its Their choice now, are they out to care and heal or do they prefer to hurt and cause further injury?

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  3. I agree with Wigarse- be careful Ben until you hear from the parole board - I suspect they should have told you their decision by now anyway! We are thinking of you so be patient a bit longer - and then - the 18000 who have visited this site recently may have something to say on your behalf. Keep strong.

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  4. Ah, Sophie, it sounds like you've experienced ATOS

    I'm due to see them soon, not looking forward to that at all -.-

    Additionally, if you get booted off by ATOS, you're chucked back on the dole as if you'd been signing on for 6 months so they can immediately get you to "volunteer" for unpaid labour, first for 1 month, then for 6!

    It's a disgrace.

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  5. Hi Ben its 13 years this week since I left Sudbury and things never seem to change within the "system". I totally agree that these power crazy so called Health Officials need calling to account. I have been there done that got the tee shirt and won!

    I really do feel for you so fight the buggers

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