Let’s have straight answers for NHS critics

Sep 26 2008 by Sarah Bull, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

So where do you go to complain about the NHS? JEAN LORRIMAN, of the Huddersfield and District Pensioners’ Association, is as confused as anyone – and makes an impassioned plea for the return of the Community Health Councils

‘All too often the public are consulted but their ideas then dismissed, which leads to accusations of mock consultations’

RECENTLY a friend asked me where she could go to get advice about problems she had been experiencing with her NHS treatments and appointments. I was stumped!

However, after what seemed a lifetime of a pause, I made an attempt to answer her questions.

I suggested she try PALS (Patient Advice Liaison Service) for hospitals or PALS for Primary Care Trust – these acronyms are not to be confused with the splendid rehabilitation and sports PALS at the various Kirklees sports centres.

Next I told her about ICAS (Independent Complaints Advocacy Service) but the problem there was that the nearest one was in York.

I suggested NHS Direct which seems to deal with a variety of problems, both urgent and non-urgent and may at least point her in the right direction, as well as her being able to speak to an actual person!

I then mentioned the Patient and Public Involvement in Health Forum (PPIF) and its successor the Local Involvement Networks or LINKS. Finally I thought of Help The Aged, Age Concern or Citizens Advice Bureau.

My friend said she was confused and I replied that it has all been very confusing for everyone involved in anything to do with health matters – which is most of us.

A few years ago I could have answered her question immediately and in short – Community Health Council (CHC), based in town at the bottom of New North Road, with a sign over the door and real people at the desk and on the telephone.

The CHC had many years experience in dealing with the health issues of Huddersfield people.

The Chief Officer, Cherry Hunter was well known, featuring regularly in the Examiner when important health issues were raised. Examiner readers will remember the support from the CHC when there were concerns about maternity services being moved to Halifax.

Some of our members at Huddersfield and District Pensioners Organisation have been CHC members, for example on the Older Peoples’ Reference Group and the NHS Framework for Older People.

All this changed in 2003 when the government, after much resistance from the Councils and their supporters, abolished he CHCs.

They were replaced by what seem to be less effective, weak and fragmented structures. One of these, the PPIF, was set up in 2003 and supposed to be independent and empowering but seemed to have difficulty getting off the ground.

Some of our members attended meetings but became increasingly concerned abut the forum’s role and just what they were achieving. Other areas must have expressed similar concerns as the PPIFs were subsequently disbanded earlier this year and replaced with LINKS.

Cloverleaf Advocacy, an organisation well known to Huddersfield and District Pensioners, has been commissioned to develop LINKS and has yet to be structurally formed before it can be used by the general public. Various groups, amongst them Huddersfield and District Pensioners’ Organisation, have attended their launches which have been welcoming and hospitable, and they have been anxious to obtain our views and ideas.

These have been expressed forcefully and it is hoped some of them will be taken on board.

All too often the public are consulted but their ideas then dismissed, which in turn leads to accusations of mock consultations and a waste of tax and rate payers’ money.

Structures designed by a whiz kid in cyberspace can confuse us and disconnect us from ordinary life.

It reminds me of a tale in Gulliver’s Travels whereby a tailor fits a suit for Gulliver using trigonometry and astronomy and then finds it’s a hopeless fit. More importantly the tailor couldn’t care less.

We however, should care, so let’s have something fit for purpose and – dare I say it – something on the lines of the old Community Health Council.

Let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water a second time. Hopefully then, if I’m asked about a health concern, I’ll be able to give a straight and unequivocal answer!