Is it just me or what?

Back in May I was admitted to a local hospital with breathing difficulties from a severe respiratory infection. A scan was taken of my head which revealed a hitherto unknown and unsuspected aneurism. An 'immediate' referral to a neurosurgeon resulted. I saw said neurosurgeon on May 23rd. He impressed on me the serious of the aneurism and its location, informing me that I did need treatment. The good news however was that he believed it could be successfully treated by a far less invasive procedure called 'coiling' as opposed to actual brain surgery. But as Canberra does not yet have a facility to undertake such procedures, the case needed to be referred to the Royal Prince Alfred hospital in Sydney.

Today, having heard nothing further for a month, I telephoned The Canberra Hospital to see if they had heard anything further from RPA. After being bounced around all over the place and being given ridiculous information such as a denial that I had even been there to see said neurosurgeon, I was finally put onto someone who did know something about the matter.

The location of the aneurism is such that I am advised should it leak or worse, I would most likely lose cognitive functions. And any brain aneurism can cause death. This is serious stuff. So perhaps you can imagine my considerable upset today to learn that the file information was still sitting in The Canberra Hospital gathering dust a month later.

I am told that I am to reduce stress in deference to the condition. Being made to wait in the dark for a month only to discover that everything has been dumped in a pile somewhere and just left there, is hardly conducive to stress reduction!

I am under psychiatric care but the psychiatrist is loathe to do anything with my medication at present as this may interfere with treatment of the aneurism. So through no fault of mine, I cannot even get proper psychiatric treatment now because of this ludicrous and entirely unnecessary delay by The Canberra Hospital and its staff.

So I decide to lodge a formal complaint and see if that can get something happening. The only problem is actually trying to find the appropriate area to lodge a complaint with. I found their website feedback but last time I used that in relation to an important matter, it look a long bloody time for anyone to bother doing anything in response to that online submission. So I hit the telephones. In the end I had to be put through to nothing less than the office of the Chief Executive of ACT Health. That or go to the Human Rights Commission.

Do I really have to go through the Human Rights Commission? Is going through another agency entirely actually going to speed things up? Not bloody likely. In my experience, involving another agency merely slows matters down further. So in the apparent lack of ACT Health actually having an area to which you may direct complaints, you have to talk to the staff in the Office of the CEO.

This is bloody ridiculous. Why is it that whenever I am forced to rely on something through the public health system, I am subjected to outrageous treatment. Take for example the arsehole alleged case manager, David Kendall (and I am quite happy to name him as the documentary evidence exists to defend my claim), who flatly refused to even allow my name to be added to the waiting list to see a psychiatrist for eight months. Not eight months on the waiting list - that's eight months trying just to get added to the waiting list. When I eventually complain, Kendall thinks it quite alright to telephone me at home at 8:06 am to start abusing me. He routinely canceled appointments, continual blaming this later on a single absence of 2-3 weeks some time previously. Multiple complaints against him achieved nothing other than assurances matters would be 'dealt with'. Once Kendall deigned to allow my name to be added to the sacred waiting list, I eventually did get to see a psychiatrist. Kendall then invited himself into the consultation and proceeded to utter the most outrageous lies including that there had only been a delay of a few weeks. He even feed my GP that line of bullshit. I was later informed by an insider that they received more complaints against Kendall than any other of their staff. So why was he allowed to get away with that shit? Why were continuing complaints ignored?

Fortunately I no longer have to deal with that shaven-headed arsewipe and access to psychiatric care is now much easier than it was under Kendall's regime. But I have that really terrible feeling that this is now all starting all over again.

Failure to access proper medical care in the past cost me pretty much everything. About all that is left for me to lose now is my life. Not that this is any great deal. And the neurosurgeon allegedly in charge of my 'care' seems quite happy to let that happen. Just leave the file on the counter beneath a pile of crap and dirty coffee mugs - she'll be right. Oh, he's dead? Oh well, never mind.

So, friends, if in the near future my friendly little aneurism does indeed decide to burst, leaving me with the cognitive abilities of a mouldy carrot, or if I'm lucky, dead - you all know who to blame.