I have had two occasions when I had to resort to using the Healthcare Commission as adjudicators for a grievance and I have to say that on both of those they failed me miserably.

In the first instance they failed to uphold my complaint because my doctor's surgery indicated, in a letter, that they had plans in place to put right the thing I was complaining about. The Commission took this at face value and therefore decided that the surgery were taking appropriate action. There was just ONE THING WRONG WITH THAT ASSUMPTION; the surgery never DID put the matter right and now more patients are suffering from the same thing! The Healthcare Commission doesn't check, obviously, that these promised changes are actually put into practice!

My second case came about because of the actions of the hospital in 2008 that are described in my section on this site regarding Medical Treatment for the Overweight in the UK.

I brought this case in August 2008 and received a phone call from the Healthcare Commission in which the person dealing with it read to me her précis of the case as she saw it and asked me if that was correct. I said NO - it did not touch on some of the important issues in the case. I pointed out some of these and EXPECTED that this would be put right. From my reading of the final letter I received, I can see that this was never done!

I heard no more until November, when I was told that, at my request, the matter was being referred to an independent assessor. I had made no such request. The background to this was that when I obtained my medical files from the hospital, I found that, having told the hospital that I was considering taking the matter to the Healthcare Commission, they then emailed the Commission behind my back, asking who was going to deal with it there. There was also a reply from the Commission which clearly states that they did not want ME to have the information they were giving the hospital! I asked the Commission, in my complaint, if this was the normal sequence of events? I DID NOT ASK FOR AN INDEPENDENT ASSESSOR; I WANTED TO KNOW IF THE HOSPITAL AND THE COMMISSION WERE ACTING PROPERLY IN THIS INSTANCE AND, IF NOT, WHAT WAS GOING TO BE DONE ABOUT IT. This point was never answered.

I made it quite clear in my complaint, that I acknowledged that the hospital had promised to put a number of things right in the future so that what had happened to me did not happen to anyone else (hopefully!). However, I pointed out that this hardly helped ME and that it was the hospital's attitude to the stress, distress, inconvenience and financial loss incurred by ME, my husband and friends, that I wanted acknowledging, evaluating CORRECTLY & putting right. This seems to be totally disregarded by the Commission AND their 'Independent Assessor' as well. It seems that as long as a hospital apologises for their many mistakes, it really doesn't matter that they have left someone in a seriously stressed and depressed state or that they have caused financial loss. To me, this is the equivalent of a driver hitting someone in the road and being told that as long as they apologise and promise not to do it again, they owe NOTHING to the person they have hit, regardless of how they have hurt them.

I knew, when I brought this matter to the Commission, that they have no power to demand compensation from the hospital - however, I did expect them to point out to the hospital that, having admitted that things had gone wrong and that I was affected by this, they perhaps owed it to me to make reparation. Instead the Commission didn't uphold a single one of my complaints and let the hospital get away with having wrecked a good part of my year.

When I decided to put up this website in protest at what is happening, I called the Commission, out of politeness, to let them know that I was going to quote, VERBATIM, from their letter to me and that I assumed that they would have no objection to this. Considering that they had not upheld my complaint i.e. I was the 'loser' in all this I could hardly see how they could object. The lady I spoke to (the assessor who handled my case having now left the organisation) immediately said 'OH NO - I don't think we can allow you to quote from our letter to you - there are other people involved. I shall have to speak to our legal department about that and get back to you. They also recommended that I take legal advice before doing so!' I pointed this letter was sent to ME and was MINE to do with as I wished. I also pointed out that 'the other people involved' were the hospital (and they had, after all, been told that their actions were 'satisfactory' AND the case had already been in the press twice!) and the 'independent assessor' of the case who, I presume, is prepared to defend his judgement? So why they should the Commission be even vaguely worried about my making their judgement public? I waited for one week before I did ANYTHING about this website (it is now over two weeks) and NO phone call has been forthcoming about this matter, giving me permission to publish their judgement or not.

I therefore leave readers to judge for themselves whether they feel I have been treated fairly or not. What I will do is thank all my friends and fans in this country and around the world who have written to say not only how disgusted they are with the Commission's judgement but indeed that it was necessary to bring the complaint in the first place - when clearly I should have been compensated for all that happened.

The fact is that there are a LOT of people in this country that are left waiting for operations, or have them booked, only to be told - months, sometimes YEARS (from emails I received) later that the operation will not/cannot take place. The stress caused to these patients, who are already suffering in some way, is enormous. It seems that even the people RUNNING these hospitals are either unaware of, or do not care about, the degree of damage they are doing to people's lives in the process. Nor does it seem, apart from bringing litigation (and who can afford THAT against their highly-paid corporate lawyers - or even WANTS to bring such action when they are unwell?) is there any defence for people affected - any organisation prepared or able to protect us, when this happens. The hospital in question simply has to hang their head a bit and say 'Soweeeee' - and we are supposed to say 'Oh that's OK then'. WELL IT ISN'T ACCEPTABLE. These administrators have obviously NOT had the experience of going to bed each night for months on end, wondering if a particular date on the calendar is going to be their last - nor have they any understanding about consequences of their ineptitude. If they are not made to pay in the only place that appears these days to make a serious difference to them - IN THEIR CORPORATE POCKET - then they will never treat these type of complaints with the seriousness they deserve.

Personally, I will never bring another case to the Healthcare Commission as I no longer believe that I can get a fair result from them for anything. They told me I could, if I wished, complain to the Ombudsman about their judgement but frankly I don't trust any of these type of organisations any longer and prefer to make my stand on this website.