think about it
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Everything posted by think about it
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Well, here it is confirmed - the recent influx of letters with regards to prescription charges and dental work is part of a crackdown on fraud that costs over £1bn. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-41824180
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Incidentally, Stu - as a PM I would have only referred back to the pharmacy and nhsbsa. Regardless of how the script got to it’s destination the responsibility to ensure it’s correctly processed and dispensed lies with both the pharmacy and the patient who needs to tick the appropriate box. However, the sooner NHS England catches up with the devolved nations and makes prescriptions free, the better. Here in sunny wales we don’t have the same issues and the NHSBSA only tend to chase dental patients when they’re not making our lives difficult in practice.
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Good news indeed.
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Dear The Tig, I hate to be so blunt but people who read your posts may not necessarily be the best people to answer them, and there’s nothing worse than a thread full of mournful platitudes about how terrible it must be, especially in just 14 hours between your op and proclamation of going it alone. Unfortunately NHSBSA are seemingly in the midst of a crackdown and as you’ve undoubtedly seen by browsing the page yourself there are a few people in similar situations at the moment. The truth is that in reality it seems you have two options, either pay the fine or fight it and risk a court judgment if the magistrate finds that you did breach the terms of your agreement with the NHS. Bookworm seems to have found some relevant information amongst the guidance and it may be worth having a read through their thread.
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It’s challenging in that you’re likely to be reliant upon the complaints process of the provider. As that provider was not the NHS you’d be best doing some research on their process and then engaging with that. In some respects though they key thing is that even when paying to go private you’re first and foremost paying for the opinions of a qualified person. Difference in clinical opinion and preferences in investigation and treatment aren’t just confined to the NHS and above all else, if a clinician does not feel that a certain test or procedure is in the patient’s best interest then they’re unlikely to sign for it regardless of who is picking up the tab. There’s no immediate rush to do anything I shouldn’t think so concentrate first of all on your recovery and do some research later. I’d take very well considered and qualified advice before withholding payment too.
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I for one am actually looking forward to reading the outcome of this. Please do keep us informed.
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I’ve decided you ought to give it a rest rather than dragging out some protracted argument based on your misunderstanding of what’s been written.
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The bottomless pit that is the Consultants out-tray...
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Eric’s Brother, I can tell you from first hand experience that electronic notes aren’t easily edited. On the odd occasion I’ve had to do this because of an incorrect entry (details added onto a patient they don’t relate to etc) the process and audit trail is a mile wide. The entry itself remains and is marked and discounted from further usage. In reality a paper record would be far more likely to be edited without any evidence being left. OP, if you’re concerned about potential edits then ask for the audit trails to be provided too. They’ll show every interaction with the records in the finest detail.
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How did you receive your response?
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At the risk of sounding like a bit of a monster; Layla, you've been drafting this letter for 984 days. You've received several different views on how to do this and all you really need do is copy/paste from this thread onto a word document. When I'm dealing with a patient's complaint I don't sit and score the grammar or syntax, I don't really care if there are spelling mistakes or the dates aren't exact because I can get those later from our records. Please, decide what it is you want to do and what outcome you're seeking and then act on it. You're perfectly capable of explaining the problems on here so if you do truly want to complain then do something sooner rather than later. As it stands any chance of anyone recalling your mums trip to hospital from memory is gone, as such any anecdotal evidence is already lost. I speak with patients on a daily basis and can probably recall conversations from a couple of weeks ago, but never from 2 and a half years ago. So, the only thing that can act in your favour now are the clinical records and as you'll see when you read them, they're not narrative accounts of everything that happened, just a brief history of clinically relevant information. I really hope that you get the outcome you're looking for but the longer you leave it, the less likely it is.
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Always great to see an update, hope you're feeling better every day.
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The NHS did not, as you put it, 'engineer' anything. No one sat in an office with the sole intent of creating a gap of a few days in which you had been identified as being likely to collect your medication and thereby commit fraud. Instead, they operated within their publicly available terms and conditions. Your ignorance of these and any defence based on the same is meaningless the moment you signed the prescription to indicate your acceptance and understanding of those very conditions. If this were the consumer contract section of CAG the first question anyone would ask is 'what did you sign and what where the Ts and Cs. A lifetime of work and contributions is admirable, no doubt but it does not mean that your entitlement to prescription medication changes. The system, in its entirety can only work when rules / terms / conditions are fairly and consistently applied to all. Nevertheless, although your goodwill toward the NHS may have ended, you and your family can rest well knowing that NHS' goodwill and commitment to providing care has not.
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So, to summarise: You signed to say that you had something which you did not, despite the fact that the very thing you signed explains that it is your responsibility to check and in an act of petulant revenge you're going to somehow 'punish' the NHS for following the terms you had explicitly signed your acceptance of in collecting your medication because your financial arrangements aren't sufficiently well organised? How wonderfully public spirited of you...
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So, correct me if I'm wrong but they didn't cancel an existing card they just prevented it from being renewed as you were turning 60 within days of the expiry of the card?
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News article- Cancer mostly diagnosed in A&E, not GP visit
think about it replied to unclebulgaria67's topic in NHS
very rarely does the GP actually diagnose cancer. They suspect it, refer the patient to the hospital for tests. We don't have a CT or MRI machine here, nor are we able to carry out extensive pathological testing. No, our GP's use their clinical judgment and NICE guidance to steer their decision making and where they feel that a patient may be at risk will refer them appropriately. -
Go away sign for religious people
think about it replied to The GodMother's topic in Welcome to the Consumer Forums
You could always set out a booby trap. -
Go away sign for religious people
think about it replied to The GodMother's topic in Welcome to the Consumer Forums
Do you know what really works well for me? I ask them politely not to come back, that's it. -
Can a bank transfer be reversed?
think about it replied to king12345's topic in General Motoring Issues
I've seen it done before where you and buyer go to your nearest bank branch and they pay in to your account over the counter. You then get the added benefit of it all being on CCTV and the buyer can use their debit card in the bank. Hand over the keys and V5c slip / receipt and pull a tenner out of the hole in the wall for a taxi home. -
Okay, so the appointments were booked because they're a finite resource, once those in three days are booked then there's no magic involved just simple supply and demand. We can't offer a patient an appointment that's already booked by someone else, I'm certain that British Airways allow me to book in advance too but once those seats are full the website's general statements of 'Book Now' or something similar are pretty useless. It's no secret whatsoever that GP services all over the UK are under exceptional demand and in suggesting that you call at 8am the receptionist was offering their advice on how to get the best chance of accessing a convenient appointment, after all, they're the ones that book them day in, day out. Given that you claim that the receptionists have consistently explained that the PM is not available and to direct your complaint in writing, as you've so ably done here, I'm struggling to see why it's such an issue. Perhaps the PM is unavailable due to personal issues or on leave and in their absence the senior partner is handling any complaints that may arise. I don't alter my practice website to advise people of my availability because I expect that a consistent message from my reception team will be sufficient to explain to people that I'm not able to meet with them, I do not expect to have to justify that repeatedly. I do employ receptionists who are assertive and I ask them to be; as Bazza explained earlier and I agreed, there is a difference between rudeness and assertiveness but I wonder what they felt the need to repeat themselves, I wonder why they felt the need to talk over you, I wonder why you were not able to accept the explanation provided to you and escalate the call to the point where the receptionist who deals with hundreds of people every day during difficult times in their lives felt that their only option was to put the telephone down on you. I don't expect my receptionists to spend time that could be spent helping people arguing over semantics about what the website says when they've tried to explain something for the umpteenth time. Like I said earlier, you're not going to like what I'm saying, I accept that entirely but please do try to see this in the cold light of day. You asked for an appointment, there were none available. You were advised to call on the day at 8am but that didn't suit your drive to work, you asked to speak with the PM and were advised on how to access them but this seemingly didn't suit either and then when the receptionists didn't cave into your repeated requests then they were rude and unprofessional. You want my honest advice as a PM? Write to your practice manager, as suggested, have them pull the tapes (I've had a few interesting experiences of doing this where when hearing themselves staff and patients alike realise how they were actually coming across) and listen to them with the PM and point out where you think they were being unreasonable. You didn't answer my questions about what concessions you expected the receptionist to make to the policies that they've been asked to work to in relation to booking an appointment or accessing the PM.
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Totally agree, Bazza. There's a line between firmly sticking to the policies and processes in place and being rude. However, not getting what you want doesn't automatically mean that the receptionist is rude or unprofessional. If my colleagues have in to every request for slightly different treatment then the whole system would disintegrate. We do allow patients with specific needs to use our system to the best of their abilities but I'm afraid that I would have never have considered a slightly inconvenient commute timing as a specific need. I'd just expect the patient to do what I and tens of thousands of others do and make allowances for it by setting of earlier or agreeing a slightly later start in order to do what I need to do. After all I wouldn't expect another organisation to alter their behaviour just to suit me. If the recordings of the calls show that my colleagues were indeed rude then that'd be disappointing but it doesn't change the core message, only that they need some direction on how to deliver it rather than be summarily dismissed.
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There’s a good few points to address here so I’ll try to do it in order but if I get sidetracked bear with me. I’ve read your message a few times over the weekend so hopefully I can have a relatively good understanding of what’s happened / happening. I’ll start with what seemed to be the original issue – online booking / availability. Online booking systems take a few different forms but they’re actually all quite similar. It would seem that you’d had difficulty finding an available appointment and the receptionist had asked that you either call or try online from a certain time. That will almost certainly be because their appointments system does not release their book on the day appointments until that morning. This process protects these book on the day appointments from being booked beforehand and actually the 07:45 release of online appointments means that patients can’t sneak online at 00:01 and book everything up eight hours before the phone lines open. So, the almost simultaneous release of online and telephone appointments makes the system as fair as possible for everyone. The three week wait for a pre-bookable appointment is about right as these tend to be reserved for those with chronic conditions who need ongoing review. So, then we come to the conflict with the receptionist. Your post explains that neither the online booking nor call at 8am met your preferences as you were driving to work. Can I ask then what exactly you had hoped that the receptionist would do? The booking policy at the practice seems relatively straightforward and therefore fair to everyone, call at 08:00 or online at 07:45. What sort of an exception to this would have been acceptable? Nevertheless, it seems that in sticking to the policy the receptionist was unreasonable in your view and on a ‘power trip’ because they didn’t bend the rules to suit your commute. After a few days you call back, where the receptionist tries to explain the practice policy on complaints handling, repeatedly; presumably meaning that you were also unhappy with them sticking to policy and tried multiple times to be put through as you say you were getting nowhere. They ask what it’s regarding, presumably in an attempt to resolve it for you, exactly as I expect my reception team to do. Reception / office areas in a GP practice are generally shielded from noise finding its way into the public waiting area, be that by virtue of a glass screen, doors, or perhaps a radio playing to mask conversation. The reception team are however all bound by the same confidentiality agreement in their contracts and therefore there is no breach in hearing a one sided conversation held by a colleague. If that were the case all GP receptionists across the UK would have to be sat in individual little booths. Interestingly too, the call is recorded, as a PM the first thing I’d do is pull those recordings and listen to them, as I’m also bound by the confidentiality agreement and have good reason to do so. So, confidentiality isn’t broken in the confines of the practice. I also ask that our team access the computerised notes of a patient when speaking to them. On there are any pieces of information that will be relevant to the person taking the call, such as advice notes if someone needs longer appointments, contact details should a caller fall ill during the call and other information such as next / previous appointments. But we come on to what seems to be the final conversation, where the receptionist agrees with you that you’re not getting anywhere and rather than continue a confrontational call they terminate it whilst you’re telling them that they have a bad attitude. I’m astonished that you would seek to have someone dismissed from their job because they followed the GP / PM’s instructions on how to deal with a complaint, how to book on the day appointments and how to deal with a patient on the telephone who will not accept what’s being said and resorts to saying that they are unprofessional and have a bad attitude. So from a PM’s perspective; and I’m sorry you probably won’t like this. It’s not within the gift of the receptionist to change the booking policy to suit your commute to work, it’s not within the gift of the receptionist to change the practice complaints procedure, regardless of how many times someone asks, it is within the gift of my receptionists here to terminate a call that is no longer getting anywhere if it starts to degrade into name calling. It is my decision, along with the partners of the practice about how I deal with my staff when they do not meet my expectations and any action I do take will be in line with ACAS guidance. Please do put a complaint into writing, you could even just copy and paste your first post and send that, but do expect that the recordings of your calls will be played, do expect that the receptionist will not be disciplined for doing exactly as they’ve been asked to do and understand that ensuring that appointments are accessible to as many of the thousands of people registered at your practice as possible means that the policy might not suit your exact needs.
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