NHS Oldham Clinical Commissioning Group

Extracts from a letter to Debbie Abrahams MP regarding the CCG and MSK ltd; who having taken over the NHS Pain Clinic, have stopped my disabled wife's pain control therapies. To Oldham Clinical Commissioning Group, The CCG are supposed to be the top tier of the reorganized NHS service management and as such are responsible for commissioning, funding and for the oversight and management of private companies such as the MSK who seem to us to be, (certainly this is our strong impression of them; operating a culture of pettifogging management intimation and indifference towards their staff and patients,) and who seem to operate entirely as law unto themselves, callously indifferent to the pain, misery and hardship they may have caused. Once again I would refer anyone who is interested back to the findings of Francis QC which to my mind also describes our current predicament perfectly. The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Inquiry discovered: A Somebody Elses Problem (SEP) attitude among hospital staff; whereby responsibility for problems becomes diffused, (ie we can't possibly get involved in clinical matters no matter how obvious the failing or how great and immediate the practical needs of the patient are.) An institutional culture oriented more to the needs of the hospital staff than to the needs of patients, (as I said above; you're treating my wife's clinical problems, her increased pain and disability etc as if they were an academic problem in quality management.) Unacceptable readiness to tolerate poor standards of patient care, (what part of unremitting chronic pain, severe muscular-skeletal and mobility issues do you fail to comprehend ?) Failure to acknowledge and respond to legitimate complaints, (I'd say that describes 4 months of complete non response from the CCG perfectly.) Failures to communicate and share concerns, (well you've gone on and on and on and on with much eloquence about absolutely everything except the real problem; that my wife has been left in increased pain and with decreased mobility etc.) Failures of leadership, with financial changes to achieve Foundation Trust status taking precedence over patient care, (ie the financial and organizational policies of MSK seem ltd seem to be paramount regardless of the previously established clinical needs of their patients.) even if it were true that there were no other provider within the healthcare system which displayed the combination of deficiencies found at the Trust, it is of very grave concern that the extensive system of checks and balances intended to detect and prevent such failures did not work. Large numbers of patients were left unprotected, exposed to risk, and subjected to quite unacceptable risks of harm and indignity over a period of years. Francis Inquiry Report, p.25.
Sep 14th, 2017