HIV test even though she has them regularly. When the couple complain, hospital raises eyebrows about her pregnancy and drops snide hint about baby’s paternity. Husband gets mad: “I’m sick of keeping my head down about this.” Local ICAS (Independent Complaints and Advisory Service - see below) swings into action, very effectively.
Cases like that are why patient power is important.
Take, for instance, the patient group at London’s Mortimer Market HIV Clinic. They sussed that patients’ biggest grouse was the long wait at the hospital pharmacy. So they lobbied for, and got, a satellite pharmacy in the clinic. Or the group at the Greenway Centre in east London’s Newham. Here’s a much more heterosexual patient group. They hate having to declare their HIV status in casualty, like our reader. So they lobby for a limited A&E service to be placed within the HIV centre, and they get it.
Patient power can’t be imposed from above because some NHS or Aids Org Standards Officer needs to tick off the ‘touchy feely’ box on their job spec this month. You don’t start from there. You start from here. End of story.
By the way, the DoH report says that, from this April, there will be a PALS (Patient Advocacy and Liaison Service) and an ICAS (Independent Complaints and Advisory Service) in every NHS Trust; Patients’ Forums, too; a local Scrutiny Committee ‘to call NHS managers to account’; and a national independent Commission for Patient and Public Involvement. All these bodies will fulfil the criteria of being Effective, Accessible, Accountable, Integrated, Independent, Adaptable and zzzzzzzzz...
Sorry, nodded off for a minute there.