This is a Disability Issue though not an immediately obvious one --
and I thought people here might anyway have information relevant to my
problem. Point 3) below is a disability issue -- comments on that
most welcome.
The local Community Health Council was helping me -- after their
fashion... with my complaint (re my mother's maltreatment) against a
Health Trust. When I told them she'd died they sent me a letter
saying they were sorry (etc.) and understood I wouldn't want to carry
on with the complaint till I felt better and to get in touch when I
did.
I've been really low since shortly after she died (I think I just had
to keep going till then and till the funeral) but was just about ready
to carry on with the complaint (and cope with the CHC...) when I got a
letter from them saying, as I hadn't answered their letter (the one I
just mentioned) they were no longer representing me and had written to
tell the Hospital Trust that.
(Pretty low=depressed, I am finding it really difficult to get things
done.)
I've taken some legal advice (free helpline) and also talked to
Cardiff Law Centre (who unfortunately don't deal with the areas of law
all this falls under). The CAB here is so busy I haven't been able to
get through. No-one I've talked to so far knows the answers to the
following questions:
1) the CHCs (which are not abolished in Wales) are statutory bodies;
shouldn't they have a charter?
2) do they have a professional association?
2) shouldn't they have a complaints procedure?
(I do have another q. but don't want to give that on-List)
3) they also sent me a customer satisfaction questionnaire which of
course I *must* fill in, saying exactly what I think! But I've lost
fine motor control (that's part of my RSI) and can't write more than
three-four words legibly; none at all unless I have more space than
forms give.
So I rang to ask if they could make the form available in
machine-readable form -- as I was disabled -- saying e-mailing it
would be fine. I had to ring two days' running, leaving two messages;
even then they didn'd get back that fast.
They rang, leaving a message. It said no; they couldn't make it
available in any other form; I didn't have to fill it in; they could
fill it in for me (!) -- they didn't bother to add, I'd have to go to
their office for them to fill it in for me, but that is so.
Any info. and any idea what to do about their behaviour would be
welcome (I've already been advised to write to the Health Minister for
Wales etc., but I thought perhaps someone here would know about the
workings of CHC's; also I don't want to start writing letters like
that if there's still a hope that I can carry on the complaint against
the Trust and take them to the Ombudsman -- who has found against
hospitals in similar but less bad cases -- even though out of time;
the CHC assured me I could but perhaps now they are no longer
representing me that won't be so -- they seem to know the hospital
pretty well...)
Thanks
Judy Evans
----- Original Message -----
From: "Helge Folkestad" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2002 10:14 AM
Subject: journal - have a look
Who knows who knows, so I thought I'd tell you all. The Scandinavian
Journal
of Disability Research has a new web site at http://SJDR.no
Helge Folkestad cand.polit.
høgskolelektor Assistant Professor
Høgskolen i Bergen Bergen University College
Avdeling for helse og sosialfag Faculty of health and Social
Sciences
Haugeveien 28
N5005 BERGEN
http://www.hib.no/ansatte/hfo
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