Persecution: SUI-Cide is Painless in Betsi

October, 20, 2014 | 9 Comments

Comments

  1. The light of day illuminates:
    I have worked for many years with large public companies and was heartened by one aspect of their approach to ethics and a key statement made that stuck in my mind was that one should act in a way that you would be happy to be read in the light of day eg in a newspaper. I am heartened to see what I have read here. Keep it up.

  2. And the saga goes on regarding psychiatry and its treatment of vulnerable people.
    You certainly have my best wishes and support for a positive outcome. thanks for caring and sharing.

  3. From TRM

    This is a very familiar story. A small number of gifted academic and clinical professionals spend a lifetime building up a centre of outstanding service and novel research. They motivate teams who look forward to “every tomorrow at work.” The brightest and best trainees are fired with enthusiasm and further raise standards of patient care and valuable, patient centered clinical research. The highest achievable quality of patient care prevails, is maintained and progresses.

    Then come the guidelines and clinical protocols, perched on the clipboards of managers from the “greasy pole society.” They cavort in their wickedness to reduce the remarkable to the mediocre. The teams are demoralized and their achievements are mocked. Guidelines of committee derivation cannot by definition and experience be scientific. They are rigidly imposed by the new “Vichey government” – The price paid by wounded, maimed and dying patients is only too clearly understood.

    Those who have lead this malicious descent into mediocrity are knighted and promoted to spread their wisdom in the ways of the wicked elsewhere.

    The descent into dangerous and shambolic care continues – whilst knowledge, understanding,empathy and wisdom despair.
    “And a man’s enemies shall be found within his own house.”
    (Gospel according to Matthew perhaps?)

    I do not think self seeking congregations of pseudo-scientific guideline writers, protocol extremists nor the managers who maliciously pedal their wares will be keen to guide and manage the new ebola centers.

    T

  4. Your experience with the minutes mirrors the experience of every single “MH” patient I have ever spoken to.

  5. I hope the point regarding the “profitability” of any inpatient psychiatric unit is not missed. The profits are in the drugs…

    The highest achievable quality of patient care is not profitable – worse it will drive the *wicked ones* into bankruptcy !!

    “There’s no money in the cure”– ?

    BUT– Gaining mastery over the “ONE ring”holds the promise of incalculable fortune– saving the “wounded, maimed and dying patients”; demonstrating the
    power, dignity and of value inherent in every single human life–

    One who knows her capacity to *create value* , cannot be corrupted by power or money.

  6. It would seem the Irish way has come to roost amongst the Welsh Hills…”Shut up, cover up and don’t ever tell”. Name and blame but cover your “Assets” and here’s a brown envelope to confirm our Pact…
    Best wishes to you Dr Healy and your colleagues as you all remain steadfast on the Road of Truth…Your opening words at the front of your book Pharmageddon tells it all –

    “For over Fifteen Years I have been involved in cases linked to injuries on drug
    treatment. This book is for those who have survived to pass their stories on,
    for the families who have been left behind, and especially for those who have
    struggled to put things right”.

    Thank you for caring…

  7. Dear David,

    I read with dismay the last few posts on your blog today.

    As you know, but for your readers I shall mention – I am an Australian based child and adolescent psychiatrist but also worked as a locum child psychiatrist in Bangor in 2003-2004 and every August from 2005 to 2008. The child psychiatry clinic is downtown in Bangor and not with the hospital, but I had enough visits for older adolescents admitted to the Hergest Unit and for the invigorating journal club and teaching medical students to get a strong impression of a well functioning Hergest Unit at Ysbyty Gwynedd (Gwynedd Hospital). I also heard from the psychiatry trainees when I supervised them about how generally happy and keen they were in the training program.

    Here in Australia I caught up with Dr Andy Hughes recently at the ANZ child psychiatry conference. He was a stalwart at the Hergest Unit in Bangor but is now in Australia. We talked about what a brilliant unit the Hergest was up until the late 2000’s, with a vibrant group of consultants and trainee psychiatrists, psychologists and good morale amongst the nursing staff. Also the community services were good. There was a humane approach and atmosphere conducive to recovery for patients.

    Attending the journal/professional development meeting on a Friday afternoon was always interesting, and if presenting one had to be on the ball to field the questions and participate in the robust but very collegial discussion.

    Thus it is with utter dismay that I heard about the problems and the departure of so many good staff. It is tragic for the staff and of course for the patients and people of North West Wales – of Gwynedd a Ynys Mon as many of them would prefer to say in Welsh.

    There needs to be a truly independent inquiry above the level of the Betsi board. Gaining information from staff who recall the halcyon days but sadly have left would be vital to a full understanding of the issues.

    My forebears are from Caernarfon and Ffestiniog – the area has a rough history of repression but the locals love the place dearly, it doesn’t need to be deprived of good resources in the present. Given the drain of such good services for the people, perhaps the local member of the Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru (Welsh National Assembly) should take an interest?

    With best wishes,
    Peter

    • Hello to you Dr Parry. Thank you for your very fine and positive perspectives on this toxic situation. The very fact that Dr Healy has for years been required to defend what is in fact a brilliant career is a scandal. Briefly, I am an author and editor who first contacted Dr Healy following the death by suicide of my healthy undepressed teenage daughter Caitlin who had sought prozac, having seen ads in the USA on tv. Friends told her that you lose weight and feel great. 63 days later Caitlin was gone having hanged herself in the guest bedroom of her home. Dr Healy understood, supported me in what seemed at the time a futile attempt to carry on. He is part of a rare, unofficial and diamond-like group of people around the world who have managed to balance expertise and ambition with the need to remember the reason we are all in this business in the first place…healing, recovery, love of life and one another. Looks like you are another diamond. Thanks.

  8. All someone needs to do is view the disciplinary cases heard by the Health and Care Professional Council to confirm this. 80% of the cases against registrants are instigated by the employer, usually a public body. Any dissenter to management can be easily subject to a trawling exercise which can raise extremely petty discrepancies in documentation, attendance etc, etc to question their competence and consequently their registration and career. I feel this is a major failure in the system which deters anyone challenging their employers systematic failures or colleague’s poor practice.

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