Moving (part 2)

So I left you in the last post with us asking the community nurse to leave as she was not interested in (or capable of) listening.

My son and I had a little chat about what to do next, both of us shocked by the ignorance and arrogance of this woman, and decided that I should go and see someone in authority to get some proper care sorted because neither of us were at all happy with the lack of care being shown.

I went down to the unit in person rather than phoning and asked to see the practice manager. They were on holiday so I saw their assistant. Frankly she was dismissive of my concerns but finally agreed to arrange more things for my son and I left it there. Two weeks later I phoned up, as nothing had happened, and asked what was happening. I was told nothing had been done and the reason for that was that my son hadn't talked to them himself. I asked what they were proposing to do about this and was absolutely shocked when she said there was nothing they could do unless Jr spoke to them. I told her (as she knew) that Jr couldn't talk to people and that was a major part of his problem for them to solve and she disagreed! I asked who was to treat him and she said I was being abusive and hung up.

I should point out that at no time was I abusive of aggressive in any way. When we asked the lady to leave the house I had my son in the room and he reacts incredibly badly to any kind of confrontation so I was very calm. As for the phone call, well as it happened my Mother, who has worked with mentally handicapped people in residential homes for 30+ years, was in the room and was also shocked that what I'd said had been construed as abusive – and my Mother has a famously low tolerance for arguments! The bottom line with this unit is that any kind of disagreement with them is taken as abuse which is as disgusting as it is ridiculous. Excuses and butt covering – that's what they specialise in.

I really didn't know what to do next so phoned my GP. Now as I used to live in the area and he's our family doctor he's known myself and family for 30 years and he was totally shocked by what I told him. I had a great conversation with him where he listened patiently to my concerns (even when I repeated myself) and took a genuine interest. He advised me to put everything in writing, copy it to him, and also to see the local MP who he would inform of situation.

So I made the appointment with our MP, and waited the two weeks to see him. Credit where it's due, he was very helpful and attentive to me and treated me exactly like an MP should treat a constituent and agreed that this simply wasn't good enough and that he was happy to follow it up for us.

Next post I'll finish this part of the story and tell you what happened after that – it really is shocking.

xxx