In spite of the much acclaimed change of NHS culture from one of 'denial and cover-up' to one of 'openness and honesty'  - there appears to be little change on the ground. What ever happened to the notion that the patient must be at the centre of the health care process in the UK?

Below is a very recent letter from an iatrogenic patient to the local Primary Care Trust (PCT). The patient has been trying, for some considerable time, to obtain an accurate set of her medical records because she has experienced blacklisting and denial of care based on inaccurate statements by various health professionals and missing test results, this is in spite of other medical documents stating that she has serious medical conditions.

XXXXXXXXXXX
Chief Executive,
XXXXXX Primary Care Trust
XXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
London XXXXXXXX                                        26th June 2003


Dear XXXXXXXXXXX

Thank you for your letter dated 9th May and for the letter from Mrs XXXXXXXXX

I note that the letter from Mrs XXXXXX was supposedly sent to me at the end of January 2003, approximately one week after receiving my letter to you. This compares with an average wait of ten weeks for a Health Authority reply. I also note that Mrs XXXXXXX 's letter is undated and that it never arrived until some four months later and only after I had written to my MP.

You have repeatedly told me that all my problems will be solved in a trice if I go to the Court to get my notes changed and change my GPs. This is in spite of my endless letters telling you how useless these suggestions are to me. There is nothing any GP can do for me because I have been blacklisted at the local hospitals, in spite of being in urgent need of specialist care.

I have lived in Third World countries, including Burma, Malaya and Aden, where the health system is far superior to anything I have experienced from the doctors you employ. This would not be difficult, because the health care I have received in  xxxxxx  can be summed up as " do it yourself or die".

As you know not only did the xxxxxxxxx   xxxx  GPs remove all my letters from my file, they also "lost" all my blood test results. When I applied to XXXXXX Hospital for these, I was told that the tape on which they had been stored had been irreversibly damaged. This is a convenient situation for doctors who wish to diagnose everything as " all in the mind".

My medical notes are full of false information, as you will have seen from the letters from the Data Protection Agency. The latter have told me that should they receive any more complaints, they will be investigating this Practice.

These doctors have not only refused to give me treatment, they have laughed at me, insulted me and jeered at me any time I asked for help. The Primary Care Trust has done absolutely nothing to resolve this situation.

In the UK we have endless tiers of expensive bureaucracy which do nothing to regulate the medical profession or protect the patient. If you are unable to control the doctors you employ, what is the purpose of your existence?

I have already supplied you with evidence to show that I have been blacklisted. the Health Select Committee and the ex-Health Secretary, Mr Frank Dobson, both agree that blacklisting is going on throughout the NHS. Patient groups and their lawyers have ample evidence to prove blacklisting of iatrogenically damaged patients is standard practice. Not one NHS Watchdog will ever lift a finger to stop it.

For your information I am now enclosing further evidence of blacklisting on a large scale, of which you are undoubtedly aware.

I have already suggested that if you cannot provide a sick and disabled person with adequate health care, then you should be paying for private care, to which I am entitled under European law and the Human Rights Act. Unless you do so, you are in clear breach of the law.

If you have any positive and practical suggestions to make, apart from the useless idea that I change GPs or alter my notes, I should be grateful if you would let me know, After nearly two years of continually fobbing me off, I  hope some fresh ideas may spring to mind.

Yours sincerely,

XXXXXXXXXX   XXXX     Name & address supplied.

Blacklisting of iatrogencally damaged patients is a criminal offence. 'Clinical care for clinical need' is mandatory in the UK. Once a cover-up has begun and consultants are involved, then it is almost impossible for the any patient to break out of the woven web of deceit.