Greenwood Surgery Saga - Part 1 (a) -- the 1st of 9 segment

This is an extraordinary story ... a look behind the scenes at the NHS and how it 'works'. It's the tale of one practice which has had a tough time -- where it has been made difficult and, at times, almost impossible to provide a safe and satisfactory standard of care. If this was a vendetta conducted solely against a practice or a GP, however, few people would get too worked up about it - but when it targets the patients of the practice, it is inexcusable. Their only fault, after all, was to choose a surgery that was not in favour with the PCT (Primary Care Trust) ... and one that was and is in competition with a surgery run by the PCT (which holds the purse strings.) There have been times when we have worked without records, when the local hospitals have been told to send the correspondence concerning patients we've referred to another practice, and for a very long time we had to work with incomplete records. This is dangerous -- and those responsible should, in my view, have been sacked. Parts of this video are a bit boring -- parts are a lot boring -- but it does give you an insight into what happens when things go wrong in the NHS. It highlights the 'cover-up culture' -- whereby managers rally round to make sure colleagues' indiscretions are brushed under the carpet. It shows the vast difference between the rhetoric: (patient choice, a personalised health service, public involvement, equal access, fairness) and the reality: (We decide what will happen behind closed doors -- and you can just like it or lump it!) And when an NHS body decides that it will actively discriminate against a group of patients, the wider Health Service looks on and does nothing. Sounds weird? Watch the movie.

YouTube | March 10, 2008