barred from accessing health care

As the title says, I have technically been barred from accessing health care. I had a meltdown over the holiday weekend because I returned home after a rare day out and my neighbour started playing loud music. The out of hours GP asked social workers to visit me at home and eventually they agreed. BUT they arrived at my house before I'd left the doctors office. I then went all week feeling anxious and I could feel a meltdown coming so I made an appointment with my GP. Unfortunately she spoke loudly didn't listen interrupted..and I had a meltdown in front of her. I hit myself in the head about 5-10 times in 5-10 seconds and it was over with. I was told my behavior was worse than her 2 young kids and I left with no help. A letter arrived from the surgery manager saying....

Warning Letter – Unacceptable Behaviour
 
As Practice Business Manager at Medical Centre, one of my roles is to protect staff from abusive and violent behaviour and NHS resources from misuse and it is in connection with this that I am writing to you.
 
I have received a report where it is alleged that on the Morning of Saturday 1st September 2018 you were both verbally and physically aggressive towards Dr B. As you are aware the NHS and Medical Centre operate a zero tolerance policy towards aggressive, abusive and violent behaviour.
 Behaviour such as this is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
 Medical Centre is firmly of the view that all those who work in or provide service to the NHS have the right to do so without fear of violence or abuse.
 
Given your behavior on the 1st September 2018 due to reduced staffing levels at evenings and weekends you will no longer be allowed to book extended hours appointments, also to ensure the safety of staff at Medical Centre there will be a second member of practice staff present at each of your appointments. Should there be a repetition of this type of behavior you will immediately be barred from entering the premises and removed from the Practice List.
 
A copy of this letter will be placed on your records and recorded in our incident register. This warning will last for a period of 12 months. After this time if there has been no further incidents you will be removed from our incident register. If you do not agree with what has been set out in this letter or have any comments to make please write to the undersigned
 Yours sincerely.
 
Samuel
Practice Business Manager

Last year my very new neighbour raved for 12 hours every Saturday and every Sunday for 2 months. This caused so much anxiety I had to sleep on my only friends sofa for 2 months. This is all after previous neighbour issues and a lot of moving around/change. Being from Oxfordshire means there are few to zero professionals with qualifications experience and knowledge of autism...and I get no support from anyone when its needed. The person that wrote autism guidance for NHS england wasted their time because in my experience NHS Oxfordshire have no idea about autism challenging behavior and the triggers that might cause anxiety. And they have none of the great and helpful services written about by NHS England. And the local council staff are beyond clueless. And this leaves me and a lot of people with health and social care problems. 

I have some support from one friend on a Saturday so because of the weekend ban imposed by the doctors I am now unable to access health care. How can this be legal. In the recent court case NAS helped with it was more or less ruled that an autistic kid can hit his teachers and NOT immediately get excluded from school if the teachers sat doing NOTHING except eat custard creams while the kid complained the environment was going to cause him meltdowns. SOOOO how can essential education be available to autistic kids who engage in challenging uncontrollable behavior but autistic adults can be excluded from essential health care ???? seems wrong to me !!! discrimination or breach of human rights maybe..

Parents
  • That sounds pretty traumatic. I know a bit what it's like: desperately wanting help and being obstructed, and them not even listening, has given me a meltdown in front of a 'therapist'.

    From the letter you quote, it sounds more like a warning than being barred, GP practices aren't technically part of the NHS, but run by the GPs. You can still complain to NHS England or to the ombudsman. Even if you were barred from the GP practice, you're not barred from any other in the area, and not from A&E or walk-in clinics. It would be good if the particular GP had some training in autism.

    Were you verbally abusive? Maybe what you said was also quite revealing.

    The first people I would suggest would be your local Healthwatch who might know if the best thing is to mediate or just concentrate on the main problem,

    they arrived at my house before I'd left the doctors office

    That sounds like social services being too effective... they still haven't done what they were asked though.

    You should be able to report the noisy neighbour to your council environmental department directly.

Reply
  • That sounds pretty traumatic. I know a bit what it's like: desperately wanting help and being obstructed, and them not even listening, has given me a meltdown in front of a 'therapist'.

    From the letter you quote, it sounds more like a warning than being barred, GP practices aren't technically part of the NHS, but run by the GPs. You can still complain to NHS England or to the ombudsman. Even if you were barred from the GP practice, you're not barred from any other in the area, and not from A&E or walk-in clinics. It would be good if the particular GP had some training in autism.

    Were you verbally abusive? Maybe what you said was also quite revealing.

    The first people I would suggest would be your local Healthwatch who might know if the best thing is to mediate or just concentrate on the main problem,

    they arrived at my house before I'd left the doctors office

    That sounds like social services being too effective... they still haven't done what they were asked though.

    You should be able to report the noisy neighbour to your council environmental department directly.

Children
No Data