The NHS is broken.

Hello ATS.

Our family is currently going through a crisis and being completely and utterly failed by the *applauded* (don't forget to clap at 8 you bigot) NHS.

I will not be clapping, nor will my schizophrenic mother who has ONCE AGAIN been deemed fit to work, sent home and attempted suicide.

My father is beside himself - she left a suicide note stating how he was trying to poison her, by injecting the milk in the home with poison and putting poison on the teabags, she also accused him of having an affair and trying to bury her. She's not the typical violent schizophrenic during her breaks, she is a lovely sweet lady who has, for 30 years, been UTTERLY failed by the disgusting NHS.

The hospital have taken her in, because she stabbed herself saying that she wanted to cut herself in half, because she thinks she's evil. The NHS won't let ANYONE see her, even with PPE, have left her for over 17 hours with a stab wound, and LIED about a psyche visit THAT NEVER HAPPENED.

The NHS were told 16 days ago about my mother's overdose on her Repsirodone, and treated her for blood poisoning due to the OD. They also knew that she had stopped her medication (and hid it from us) because the voices told her she was cured.

She was SENT HOME with the promise of a home visit from a 'psyche' team who did not show up, instead they said they'd call and do a phone consult, well that call never happened. Instead they called 33 hours later and asked us if we could, once again take my mother to the medical building for a psyche consult!!!!

So we arrive at the hospital, only to be told that no psyche consult had been booked and that it was a routine MEDICAL that my mother was to recieve (as they did an operation 14 months ago and left her with a stoma for 13 months, which is still on). So we asked what the heck was happening with the 'mental health team'. Well, it turns out that the mental health team have taken it upon themselves to LIE and put on her medical notes that a psyche consult was done, it was NOT!

Further to today and my mother has stabbed herself and is back in the hospital and THE SAME THING is happening again. We're being told we can't see her and that the 'mental health team' will speak to her, at some point - they couldn't say because its "nothing to do with this department".... So now where do we go?

I'm at a complete loss for a solution here. We get stone walled by everyone we talk to. And the mental health team are badly, BADLY failing my mother, to the point where my father may have to section my mother, which would destroy him....

Has anyone else ever dealt with these incompetent wastes on the NHS? How did you deal with it?

I will NOT be clapping this broken, failed organisation ever!

I should add that they have had her on the same medication for 18 years. They claim she won't build up a tolerance, yet she keeps trying to over-dose.....

a reply to: Joneselius

You should contact the complaints department if you haven't already, I'd also contact a solicitor, record everything and demand all of her medical records.

Mental health services in the UK are atrocious, they'll stay atrocious until we do something about it. Too many lives are needlessly ruined or lost due to their complacency.

You should demand a medication review too, if 18 years have past and she's had ongoing symptoms then the drugs or combination of drugs are ineffective.

I'm sorry this is happening to your family and I genuinely hope things improve. Don't give up and hold them accountable for their failings.

If you have problems with your mother's care, then there are various things you can do to address.

However, mental health is often very complex and often management of a patient is difficult. Your starting point is to find the name of the Responsible Clinician who is (as the name suggests) responsible for your mother’s care. This is a legal responsibility and covers making decisions about treatments, detentions, discharge et al.

Put away Google and the attitude, and have a grown up conversation with him/her. You may discover why and how things are done.

originally posted by: Joneselius
Hello ATS.

Our family is currently going through a crisis and being completely and utterly failed by the *applauded* (don't forget to clap at 8 you bigot) NHS.

I will not be clapping, nor will my schizophrenic mother who has ONCE AGAIN been deemed fit to work, sent home and attempted suicide.

My father is beside himself - she left a suicide note stating how he was trying to poison her, by injecting the milk in the home with poison and putting poison on the teabags, she also accused him of having an affair and trying to bury her. She's not the typical violent schizophrenic during her breaks, she is a lovely sweet lady who has, for 30 years, been UTTERLY failed by the disgusting NHS.

The hospital have taken her in, because she stabbed herself saying that she wanted to cut herself in half, because she thinks she's evil. The NHS won't let ANYONE see her, even with PPE, have left her for over 17 hours with a stab wound, and LIED about a psyche visit THAT NEVER HAPPENED.

The NHS were told 16 days ago about my mother's overdose on her Repsirodone, and treated her for blood poisoning due to the OD. They also knew that she had stopped her medication (and hid it from us) because the voices told her she was cured.

She was SENT HOME with the promise of a home visit from a 'psyche' team who did not show up, instead they said they'd call and do a phone consult, well that call never happened. Instead they called 33 hours later and asked us if we could, once again take my mother to the medical building for a psyche consult!!!!

So we arrive at the hospital, only to be told that no psyche consult had been booked and that it was a routine MEDICAL that my mother was to recieve (as they did an operation 14 months ago and left her with a stoma for 13 months, which is still on). So we asked what the heck was happening with the 'mental health team'. Well, it turns out that the mental health team have taken it upon themselves to LIE and put on her medical notes that a psyche consult was done, it was NOT!

Further to today and my mother has stabbed herself and is back in the hospital and THE SAME THING is happening again. We're being told we can't see her and that the 'mental health team' will speak to her, at some point - they couldn't say because its "nothing to do with this department".... So now where do we go?

I'm at a complete loss for a solution here. We get stone walled by everyone we talk to. And the mental health team are badly, BADLY failing my mother, to the point where my father may have to section my mother, which would destroy him....

Has anyone else ever dealt with these incompetent wastes on the NHS? How did you deal with it?

I will NOT be clapping this broken, failed organisation ever!

I should add that they have had her on the same medication for 18 years. They claim she won't build up a tolerance, yet she keeps trying to over-dose.....

Sorry to hear your mum is having problems with her condition and getting treatment. May be your mum should be in a more suitable facility where she can be properly monitored and cared for.


"failed by the *applauded* (don't forget to clap at 8 you bigot) NHS"
This statement however in these unprecedented times is inappropriate and unfair when so many are risking their own lives fighting this virus to help save others with over 144 NHS staff and over 133 care home staff having lost their lives to date.

Hope you get things sorted out for your mum.

a reply to: Joneselius
I am so very sorry

The system...worldwide is broken...prayers for you, and yours.

a reply to: paraphi

I don't Google. This is my mother, not some random person. We're aware if schizophrenia and its many forms having read all the material there is to read.

Her doctors, as stated dismiss her and then claim it's up to someone else to take care of.

She's been sectioned now with my fathers consent.
Thanks for the tip about growing up, never thought about that, i was planning on having another 3 year old conversation with the doctor Google......

We're keenly aware of HOW things should be done, and the various ways and laws in regards to psychiatric care, but they're not straight forward and, mostly, absolutely not fit for purpose.

a reply to: RP2SticksOfDynamite

I know its not exactly fair, but other people (who go unnaplauded) lost their lives too, as an institution the NHS is completely broken....

Thank you, sincerely for the well wishes.

a reply to: Joneselius

Want to help your mother????

A very good place to start would be to not air on an international internet site her dirty laundry for the world to read.

I'm absolutely certain she struggles enough.

There is no fix here - You cannot make sense of a system that is ignorant to true human suffering in its innocence in totality. The system thrives on the personalities you have described your mother of being.

Its really very simple - she clearly doesn't want the meds (smart lady) their as shes well aware destroying what self awareness she has left.
She needs mental rest and plenty of it initially not mental stimulus so start lacing her food with THC, get her sleeping and feeling calm as much as possible and watch the demons exit her being. Do this for a good 18 mths then start reducing the dosage to a level thats working for your family stability.

Make of it what you will.

a reply to: RAY1990

We have done this again today.

We got the psychiatric liaison involved and things have, finally, started to move forward. They've got my fathers consent to section my mother but it's a very tricky situation and theres a lot of variables.

a reply to: CthruU

What I'll make of that comment is that you're dangerously idiotic if that's okay with you.

Telling a schizophrenic not to take their meds is a SURE FIRE recipe for total disaster.

Dirty laundry. None of you know my mother, she doesn't read the internet either. Thanks for 'having her back though'.

Your comment is one of the myriad of 'I can't believe that was typed by a person' comments you see online sometimes....

a reply to: Joneselius

Sorry to hear what's happening with your mother and I'm sorry for what you and your family are going through when it comes to her getting the care that she needs. I'm now reaching the part of my comment where it might enrage you or some others but nevertheless, here we go:

The NHS is a massive machine. Your medical needs (and I mean this with respect) is one cog that the machine has to deal with. Sometimes things fall through the crack. The lady in my life has had two breaks downs over the past ten years the first she was treated horribly, the second time and the most recent she was treated with care and respect by the NHS. Yes the mental health system in this country is rubbish and damaged. People often claim that it is being worked but as of right now it isn't perfect. I myself have mental health appointments well until the lockdown once every month for OCD and anxiety that was free thanks to the NHS. My mother was given a triple heart bypass by the NHS and recently threw back a glass of booze on her 9th year post op otherwise she'd be a pile of ash across the local park.

Because you and again I mean this with respect and your family has received poor care doesn't mean the NHS system is broken. Does it need a reboot? Probably, could it be better? without a doubt but using your experience isn't fair. For your one example of a bad experience there are dozens possibly thousands maybe more (for sure more) who have come away with a happy feeling about the NHS.

You have a right to be angry. This is your Mother. This is your family. If it was my Mum I'd no doubt be kicking off also but to say that the entire system is broken isn't fair to the people who work their backsides off to make sure people have a good experience and get the healthcare they need. The only other option is an American type system and although I'm sure the Americans on this site will defend it to the death, the US for profit system is not the golden egg they pretend it to be. I'm truly sorry for what you and yours are going through but there are others who have had a good experience from the NHS.

a reply to: CthruU

Are you kidding??? THC??? Totally dangerous nonsense. I'm one of those few people for whom THC in even the tiniest amounts causes horrendous but temporary schizophrenia and you couldn't pay me any amount to try use it ever again. It is a great medication for most folk but not everyone is wired normal so these blanket, pro weed, statements are bs. I've known a few schizophrenics that smoked pot and it did not help. The assumption that mental illness just goes away if one chills and tokes is so fn retarded too.

originally posted by: Joneselius
Thanks for the tip about growing up,

I said have a "grown up" conversation. I work in the NHS and the number of people who are "self-taught", and rude and obnoxious to people trying to do their jobs is sad. I am not suggesting you are a case in point.

Regardless, I hope you take my advice to seek a conversation with your mother’s Responsible Clinician, or at least persuade your father to do so. That is, if you have not done so. If you still feel aggrieved then there are escalation processes within Trusts to get answers and redress.

a reply to: Joneselius

So I work in the NHS and I have a few points that might be helpful, might not be but take it or leave it.


So first of all language like this:

Our family is currently going through a crisis and being completely and utterly failed by the *applauded* (don't forget to clap at 8 you bigot) NHS. .... she is a lovely sweet lady who has, for 30 years, been UTTERLY failed by the disgusting NHS.

Won't get you very far, now I know you're just having a anonymous online rant but if you speak this way to the team looking after her you're not going to do you, your mother or this situation any good. All that's going to happen is you're going to alienate the team looking after her and that just creates more problems. Thats not to say you cannot air you're grievances just that you need to be careful how you do it. Soon as you get pissed like this with the team communication breaks down and from what I have read this to me looks like a communication issue fundamentally.

So firstly make an appointment to sit down and speak to your mothers consultant psychiatrist and then if you're still not happen get things in writing and make a complaint, speak to a solicitor.

Raving and ranting about it won't fix anything and PICK YOUR BATTLES.

Specifically I mean this...

The NHS won't let ANYONE see her, even with PPE, have left her for over 17 hours with a stab wound,

Tough, sorry to be brutal but tough sh!t every one is in the same situation with this and it sucks, most who work in the NHS are sympathetic to this but its just the reality of life under COVID. You can get pissed off about it all you want but the hospital just aren't going to let you in when there are people dying without loved ones at their bedside at times. Just accept it and move on, its like I said, pick your battles. This is a battle you just won't win and will only piss you and everyone else off.

Why should you and your family get any kind of special treatment....you shouldn't.

and LIED about a psyche visit THAT NEVER HAPPENED.

Now let me be very clear I am not accusing you of lying about this but it sounds to me like a miscommunication rather than the medical team lying.

Let me explain.

If I or anyone else that makes up a team of health care professionals lie about something being done that was not done thats our job. The one thing that is pretty much guaranteed to get you sacked and struck off is lying about an error or omission of care and everyone who has ever signed something in a patients medical notes knows it. So for a doctor its much simpler to document in the notes that a psyche referral is pending or that they are waiting for the mental health team to get back to them...whatever, rather than to lie about it. To actually document that Mrs A has had a psyche review and this has not been done would be an almighty and mega complaint that would lose someone their job. My point is that it makes everyones life much easer to either just write "psyche review pending" or "awaiting psyche call back" rather than lie about it and pretend it happened when it didn't.

Honestly as a health care professional I cannot even imagine how anyone would be as stupid to knowing say a psyche review has been done when it has not especially in medical notes. Nobody would be stupid enough to write in the notes that a psyche consult has happened when it has not, for one thing you would basically need to forge the consult. Thats kind of the implication here that someone wrote in the notes pretending to be the consultant doing the psyche consultation then said its done so lets send her home. Nobody would risk their job doing that.

That leads me to believe that this is a miscommunication between your family and the team looking after you're mum. Again this isn't a good thing and shouldn't happen but also is not as serious as lying about it in her medical notes or to her family about it. This could be resolved quite simply by making an appointment to speak to someone about your mothers care.

I would be curious as to how you "know" they lied about this.

Now with regards to some of your other complaints such as the mess around getting an appointment to speak to the mental health team, I get it. I would be pissed off too if that was my family but you kinda need to remember that the NHS is operating under pretty weird times. Mental health services are getting hit really hard just now as a result of lockdown so, yeah the community mental health team might not be able to make it out to see your mum right away. It sucks but the only thing you can do about that is write to your local MP requesting an urgent review into local services, the NHS can only work with the resources they have.

Also the thing about turning up for what you thought was a psyche review only to find it was a medical review again, sounds to me like a communication issue. I really don't understand how or why anyone would have a psyche consult in the same place they got to get a stoma review. Just doesn't add up. Sounds to me like you have been fixated on the need for a psyche consult (understandably) and gone to the medical review with unrealistic expectations of a psyche consult.

You have to understand that when they say to you "its nothing to do with this department", they're right, the Stoma nurse isn't going to have any real contact with the mental health team on a a day to day. In fact in the UK the NHS is kind of split in two. You have the physical side of it, the usual hospitals with operations and medical issues then you have the other half, the mental health services (simplistic I know). My point is that they're never usually in the same building let alone the same department.

Finally I would also highlight to you that mental health can be extremely complex and its not unheard of for the family to think they know the whole story when actually they don't because the patient is refusing to permit the teams involved in their care share all information.

So yeah my advice is to calm down, get an appointment with her consultant psychiatrist and talk it out being open to the idea that this might be down to a miscommunication.

a reply to: igloo

Yes, agreed. Recommending a schizophrenic take a substance known to cause psychosis is strange advice.

Not that I'm a fan of antipsychotics which are basically poisons. They are only prescribed because they have a desirable short-term effect on some of the symptoms of psychosis.

I'm an RMN but I'm looking to get out, I've had enough.

Working behind a counter of a corner shop or sweeping up somewhere sounds idyllic to the crap I've had to endure.

originally posted by: igloo
a reply to: CthruU

Are you kidding??? THC??? Totally dangerous nonsense. I'm one of those few people for whom THC in even the tiniest amounts causes horrendous but temporary schizophrenia and you couldn't pay me any amount to try use it ever again. It is a great medication for most folk but not everyone is wired normal so these blanket, pro weed, statements are bs. I've known a few schizophrenics that smoked pot and it did not help. The assumption that mental illness just goes away if one chills and tokes is so fn retarded too.

Combusting MJ is the least therapeutic use.

Its a high grade anti parasitic when ingested.It can clean the bad gut parasites/bacteria that cause cancer and covid.

Its a high grade viral-sized bacterial killer in an alcohol based tincture form that can be imbibed sublingually into the bloodstream more optimally.It can kill the same bacteria that lives in the gut and causes cancers and covid.

These are contact bug killers and work immediatly with little to no lagtime.Many diseases like Schizophrenia can be related to peripheral stressors ad their impacts from parasitic infections.....all diseases are connected to one single causality.

a reply to: Joneselius

Really sorry to hear what's happening with your mum. You must do two things -
1) Put in a complaint to CQC listing everything that went wrong
2) Raise safeguarding against the relevant teams.

I really hope you get the help you and your mum deserve.

a reply to: Joneselius

Sorry to hear about your Mother, can't be easy.

Seems there's a few people in this thread trying to give you advice on how to move things forwards.

With all due respect it seems your anger and bitterness maybe preventing you from seeing things objectively and the single most important thing in the here and now is your Mother's well being.
Read what informed individuals have written and act upon it.

Once your Mother is on the road to recovery if you're still feeling the same then will be the time to seek answers.

The NHS is NOT broken.
It may have been under-funded in the past and it most definitely has been taken for granted and serially mis-managed at every single level.
But it is staffed by some great people who deserve every accolade given.....and more.

As with most things; the NHS can be improved - in fact it should be improved - and to do that its failings need to be pointed out and addressed.

Spewing vitriol and being rude to those offering genuine advice will not help your Mother.

a reply to: CthruU

I don't know the identity of his/her mother so I don't think your comment merits such confrontation.

And I am vehemently against your advice of spiking the food of someone with schizophrenia, especially with THC. I'm a frequent user and have mental health issues of my own before you go "educating" me.

originally posted by: Joneselius
a reply to: RAY1990

We have done this again today.

We got the psychiatric liaison involved and things have, finally, started to move forward. They've got my fathers consent to section my mother but it's a very tricky situation and theres a lot of variables.

That's good.

I've been through this system myself and on behalf of others, I like using the word manana to describe it. So I often insist on some form of structure and we'll reasoned planning.

Contact and communication is key.

All the best, I hope the situation improves.