.... on subjects I think are funny: I don't have any more. I've given my entire stock. Also, as I mentioned yesterday, the bottom has fallen out of my blog traffic but I don't know if this has something to do with the start of the English holidays or if it is related to my blog content.
.... on personal or family issues other than the well-known problems which Mrs Carr has with NHS Lothian. Now that my identity is known it is not fair on the family for me to raise any other issue. With anonymity, doing so is possible but difficult; unfair and impossible without. I mention this tonight because I would have raised another topic; I wanted to but I cannot. My only options are to keep a lid on these matters or to open up a new blog which cannot be traced back to me. This is the first instance where I have a a price to pay for the newspaper article.
11 comments:
My blog traffic has dropped by about a third, who knows why, who knows why I ever had any to begin with. Still mostly google searches anyway.
Well open up another blog if you think you should. It doesn't cost a thing. You'll always be Calum Carr to me and frankly I would have to look up the article again to find out your name since I forgot already.
Well the question is do you think the price was worth it? You know you had to take the opportunity.
something to do with the start of the English holidays
That's the reason.
:)
With JMB, open another and keep this one for Mrs Carr and the NHS issues. You will never know if you don't try. Go for it.
Anonymity protects family and friends. I very rarely blog about personal issues as my husband and son blog under their own names. I'm always afraid of anything even slightly controversial impinging on family in Britain, so I find it easier to talk more openly in comments.
If you feel the need of more privacy, by all means go for a new blog.
I've also had quite a sharp downturn in traffic - I think it might be holiday-related..
Anonymity or not - it's a hard one isn't it?
I'd already had some experience of NHS covert backlash before I started. I'd made a couple of complaints via ICAS and some doctors and admins had subtly made it clear that I was getting NO treatment, matey, whatever the problem is...with oh-so-nice smiles on their faces.
My med records are now a complete mess what with all the lies and coverups and silencing attempts. I have even very seriously discussed with my ICAS advocate the necessity of changing my name when I move, just so my old records will not follow me. From this I learnt at least that med records are destroyed after 7 years.
Sooooo, I deliberately chose anonymity for my blog.
It's a close call: if you're Anon, then what credibility do you have? How can people believe you?
I decided that MY health was more important than others' opinions of the story or my credibility. I know what the NHS has done to me, and so do the doctors/penpushers involved.
Besides, aren't we NHS casualties telling virtually the same story? That of negligence and abuse and intimidating/callous disregard?
One day though, I will come out of the closet - and doctors will be named publically.
For the sake of my own self-respect, I operate on the basis that every word I write must be legal, decent, honest...I can't tell as much of the truth as I'd like though! Clearly, though, NHS staff do not find it necessary to limit themselves in such ways.
And...it's summer!
Autumn is on its way - perhaps now is the time to plan a 'marketing campaign'...?
jmb, Ashley, Dragonstar, cb In terms of Mrs Carr's story, any clinician who dealt with Mrs Carr would recognise her and them from my blog. Since the newspaper article her story and name are in the open: that was our decision. The effect of the article is that Mrs Carr, I and our children are now identifiable. Therefore, if I were to blog some other personal aspect that can now be linked to our family. Say, for example, I wanted to rant about one particularly bad day with our children. lack of anonymity would preent my blogging. Even if I were going to reveal some aspect of me I wouldn't do that now either.
Starting a new blog is easy but there is little point having a new blog with the same IP address as CalumCarr. Therefore, I'd need to find a way of making my new blog unconnectable to CalumC.
Deb or BHN I think on a blog one can have credibility even if one is anonymous whereas Mrs Carr's article would have lost credibility if she had not been named. Therefore I think you lost nothing by writing anonymously.
You say, "Besides, aren't we NHS casualties telling virtually the same story? That of negligence and abuse and intimidating/callous disregard?"
This is a terrifying thought. It is one thing to know, eg, that Mrs Carr has been appallingly treated but to realise that such behaviour is relatively common within the NHS and can happen to anyone anywhere.
What is it about the NHS which "lends" itself to this behaviour? Do you think any organisation which has such contact with everyone would be similar?
There is nothing to do but fight them but that seems like pissing into the wind.
But, Calum (I'm taking it that you're not joshing with me!) it really IS that bad with the NHS.
I'm gradually compiling a welter of links to similar stories and also to academic papers and official reports on NHS failure on my blog.
You and Mrs Carr are not alone by any means.
Let me see...what about the other five of my immediate neighbours, one of whom lost his life, another nearly lost her leg, another lost bowel function, another is losing her sight...all as a direct result of the way they were treated by the same GP and same major hospital.
And what about the social worker who told me last week that they are overloaded with all the patients that the local NHS either denies treatment to or has messed up; and then there's the local MIND who are overwhelmed by this PCT's reject patients; disability advocates here are equally snowed under with poorly people trying to get treatment and support; and then there are the many thousands of thyroid, ME/CFS, stroke, patients who are routinely ignored (the blogs are out there), and the national support charity for a widespread disease which told me that their outreach manager had left her new job at the hospital we'd been 'treated' by after only three weeks because she was so worried by all the - yes - debacles and abuse of patients.....
It comes to something when a much respected former MP, Alice McMahon, has to sue the NHS to get treatment to stop her going blind....did you see that in the news last week?
I could go on and on. It was really only when I put my case aside and looked at all the real devastation out there that I decided to add my own voice to the blogosphere - not just for myself but for all my neighbours and others who are too scared to tell it like it is. We've all, thousands of us, got a very similar story to relate....
IMHO, it's worse than terrifying. I actually believe that we do not have a health service now. We have a lot of well-qualified and earnest people who work for an organisation whose only purpose is to save money.I believe that they are not allowed to do the jobs that they trained for.
Sorry for the rant! I think that ANY organisation has the potential for this awful treatment of 'customers'. Luckily, most don't behave in this way because they have to make profits. But it's more than that: I believe the NHS's management strategy is plain inappropriate, it breeds 'unitisation' of human beings - and with that disrespect. See Milgram etc for explanations of why and how decent human beings find it incumbent upon them to obey fascist regimes. Dr Rant's blog, for example, has been particularly vociferous about the need for doctors to resist the NHS's Stalinism.
I did do some serious research on likely reasons why the NHS is as it is now. I have a couple of articles coming up on NHSExposed.com which tackle the issues. Watch this space, as they say (or rather my blog!).
In my stronger moments I strongly believe that we must fight the rot no matter how futile it seems. This is about saving our own lives - because we can no longer depend on the NHS to do so.
Apologies Calum, I let my older son use his gmail and didnt notice I wasnt signed in and left a comment under his name of Ashley. Sorry.
As James said, it isn't your posts it is because it is holiday season!
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