Let's Fight: Background Info 1

As my battle with the NHS continues I think the issues will become clearer if I give some background information. Most nights I will either repost or highlight some previously unreported information.

Tonight I repost from September 2007.

"Today I write in shock and with dread.

I have written previously about the eating disorder within our family but I have not given details whilst we are fighting for treatment. I must change this policy now. We fight on, with the help of an excellent local politician and a hugely supportive counsellor, but as door after door is slammed I must broaden our fight and so I need to give a few details.

We have, or have had, anorexia, bulimia, depression, self-harm, an overnight disappearance, an "accidental" overdose and an unsuccessful suicide attempt but yet the NHS offers only anti-depressants and a self-help book - not received yet. In fact the anti-depressants were withdrawn after the suicide attempt and we had to fight to get them reinstated.

Health professionals will not explain why there is no immediate crisis help although we have been demanding this for months.

The only feasible explanations are that they do not believe the symptoms are real but are simply escalating attempts to get attention; that their diagnosis is that there is no long-term cure and informing the patient of this would be harmful; or that treatment would be be so hugely onerous on a therapist that they must deny treatment.

If there is to be no treatment then at least tell us the truth. Despite our best attempts the truth remains hidden. The professionals will not address the issues. We are fighting without knowing the actual diagnoses.

A seriously ill patient has been cast out by the NHS as unworthy of treatment!

We can't even get a genuinely independent private opinion without a referral from our GP. The very professionals who have shunned the patient have the power to deny (or, at least, colour) a second opinion.

I have been pushed to write today because a well-respected mental health voluntary organisation has refused help because the support required is quite intensive and beyond their capabilities.


Too difficult for the voluntary sector and unwanted by the NHS!

How can this be?

How can a seriously ill patient miss out on treatment? Something is amiss.


We need the truth now.

We need treatment now and have needed this for months.

I say again: if there is to be no NHS treatment they, at least, owe us the truth.


But as I write this with anger, fear and tears I see no way through. The NHS, for reasons unkown, has left us alone with neither diagnoses nor explanations. I am struggling and I am the healthy one! What it must be like to be suffering I can't imagine but I can only admire the strength to get through each minute.

I never believed that the NHS - my national health service - could act with such callous disregard for one's health; for one's life.

I feel anger and dread I have never felt before and I trust and pray that, from somewhere, help appears. The future is unclear but somewhere, somehow I must find a way through.

I will not let the NHS win.

Imagine talking about winning. I'm talking about the future of our family, about one's life. The NHS should be falling over themselves to help but instead they're running away from us scorching the earth as they go.


This is life or death.

For God's sake, NHS. Choose life and help!!"

All the problems highlighted in the original post last September still apply today. If you are appalled by the (lack of) treatement afforded Mrs Carr please link to the main campaigning post.


I appreciate your support. Please stick with us: this campaign will take time to grow and and even longer to succeed.

Mrs Carr needs this to succeed as do those others who are being failed but have no voice. Please speak for all of them!