Why people have no choice but to go Complementary- PLACEBO VS NOCEBO

A star rating for GPs ! I'm sure a 5 star would look pretty but wouldn't help me.
All I need is a GP who is kind and caring and supportive.......who puts my needs above protecting their own back or meeting Government targets.

A GP who doesn't punish me for being ill, if they can't 'cure me'.....who isn't threatened by a knowledgeable patient.

My last GP was so dismissive, unsupportive, that he has left me literally traumatised......Oh yes he acknowledged my symptoms fitted ME/CFS - but treated me like an unmotivated psychiatric case.....threatening to have me locked up if I ever told him I was very down again(I'd lost my home/relationship/job & health).Ignoring my questions/references to the work of Dr Nancy Klimas (a leading USA immunologist)-dismissing supplements - "GP's don't do supplements !"

Having ME/cfs is like being accused of a crime you haven't committed & no one's listening.....

I need a GP who has an interest in immunology /haematology or hiv....that would be a start.

A GP who realises that the most effective , healing thing they can do for me is to accept that their support & understanding is crucial. Ok so there's no cure.....fine ........but you as a GP can be of massive help just believing.......just using your "status" so that I can fill out my housing forms & get my rightful place on the list......Explain how the stress of living under the constant threat of eviction if I make a fuss is damaging my health......explain how a better environment would really help.

Recently a woman in Brighton West Sussex became the first person to die of ME/CFS....she'd been ill for 7 years.......the family lost all faith in the medical profession .......as she wasn't getting better her Doctors sectioned her.....eventually as she deteriorated they let her go..........she died .....

Don't say I'm paranoid.....that's how these GP's are.

You can't just find one with appropriate interests.no....you get who you are given......Some choice in the NHS !

Last year a Social Care friend tried for 11 months to help me find a new GP......but totally failing to miss the point of how traumatised I am by that GP, everytime she tried to talk to me about it, I would become hysterically upset........eventually she gave up.......

Now I feel I have no choice but to complain to the General Medical Council....without acknowledgement of the disgusting , unsupportive way I've been mishandled ....I don't think I can move on.

At least that letter of complaint may help protect me from the DWP.....who no doubt will punish me for not currently having a GP . I just can't risk getting another like him. Yet I'm not allowed to choose. Perhaps at appeal they will acknowledge that with his threats and unsupportive attitude I reasonably chose my only option......to opt for Complementary.......

Friends who really want to help people like me....don't TELL US DO THIS/DO THAT..... ASK us what we need you to do and see it through. If I need you to call a Utility company that won't listen to me.....don't let them fob you off too......as you'll have unwittingly justified their original failure to acknowledge the concerns of 'vulnerable customer'- Even worse you'll have reinforced and repeated the damaging dismissive unsupportive attitude of the GP who caused so much damage. Don't tell me to report a slum landlord to Environmental Health if that report could result in my eviction........

Keep the Government off my back & be there to fight my corner against these people who don't listen ! But remember....my energy is very limited....listen......don't tell. I don't need any more stress than I have. Respect that I know what I need....and what is priority & what is not........currently it is to be prepared to protect myself from any consequences of a reassessment....therefore a GMC complaint should at least be taken seriously....Everything else will fall into place. That doesn't mean it isn't stressful.

(Cameron)General Wellbeing vs General Ill-feeling (Blair)

To illustrate the pressure on the longterm sick & disabled, just look at what happened last week.
Cameron announced he would work WITH disability groups & was interested in promoting General Wellbeing-I so hope he means it.

Then we had HRH Prince Charles championing access to Complementary Medicine. A big start would be to stand up for people's (HIS PEOPLE'S) right to access it as an option. But especially where the NHS & GP's have nothing to offer. To be able to access it without fear of punishment & Benefit withdrawal.

I'm sure a case taken to the European Courts would be supported as in Germany GP's routinely prescribe herbal supplements & treatments alongside conventional medicine.

Blair, on the other hand was exposed by the BBC's Radio 5 Live Worricker Report (21 May 2006), as presiding over a chaotic new DWP computer system(surprised?) that is used to assess & re-assess genuinely longterm sick & disabled people. But the system is so biased against the claimant that the report advice boiled down to "if you are called or recalled for a Personal Capability Assessment, make sure you have a WELFARE RIGHTS OFFICER with you from the start."

When Government Doctors are paid by the report to do as many as 500 incongruous self-populating computer questions in each 20-30 min assessment-& can only manually input "other info" if they have time.........how can that be fair to genuine claimants. This system as it has been shown, cannot be capable of fairly assessing complex , changeable conditions if it can't get it right in straightforward cases.

Is it any wonder the Worricker Report found many people who'd had their benefits halved(despite no change from previous PCA) & even reports altered by Civil Servants. They were then left to spend their own money(never refunded) for legal representation at numerous appeals. Six appeals in some cases.

Longterm disabling illness & disability is tough enough without this hell on top. How long before Blair has blood on his hands for this bullying fiasco- aren't we entitled to some quality of life ? (The CSA has had a number of suicides)

Under the Freedom of Information Act, Radio 5 Live obtained the Guidance for Doctors administering the PCA. ............It included such advice as & I summarize,
"a suntan is generally a sign of health & wellbeing & a claimant can be deemed fit & able"
"wearing clean, matching clothes is likely to be well organised, whereas one in mismatched clothes is likely to be disorganised"

Well, I for one would naturally go to an appointment reasonably dressed & clean. The fact that I may (at home) leave my washing up for a week or more, or do my clothes washing fortnightly in a bucket because I prioritise how I use the little energy I have, is unseen.

A classic computer(Doctor's Assessment) question is "How long do you watch tv?" Whatever answer you give is entered by the Doctor.......unleashing a spurious, alarming domino effect of self-population by the program, dozens of times throughout the Assessment. Such as ......"can sit for X hours / can concentrate for x hours etc etc. Well my tv is on 24hrs a day often- firstly to drown out the street noise & drunken neighbours. I use it like a radio- I NEVER sit up "watching I"it -it's too tiring. I ALWAYS lay down on my back or on my side- Often with my back to it. If I'm awake, I'm awake, if I fall asleep, I fall asleep.

Secondly, it takes the chill off my unheated blacked-out room. Incidentally, having been stuck in a damp, mouldy, single-glazed, unheated property that rarely gets above 11 degrees C all winter I DAMNED WELL DESERVE A BLOODY SUNTAN ! - It is possible to get one sitting or laying in one spot you know.

Sunlight is essential to help regulate sleep, & maintain bone health for a start. Not to mention general wellbeing. For people housebound or bedbound for the majority of the time, this is something we lack. This country won't approve Melatonin-we have to find friends or family who will import it for us.

If you see me out for two or three hours one Summer's day, you can bet I will have just got up & will shortly be back in bed in a darkened room for the next 24/48 hours. I'll have been bedbound for the previous 48 hrs apart for essentials & will have blocked out the 2/3 days following in my diary for total rest. (ie not having to se anyone or go anywhere) Even doing this won't prevent the sore throat, sore mouth, & mild pre-flu type shittiness I'll feel for the next few days. On top of the normal everyday symptoms that never really go away.

I know of relatively few illnesses / disabilities where "exercise"isn't beneficial, so long as it is within what's ok for you & is not enforced. Only you know that from experience. Yet this Government seems hellbent on not only denying me decent housing & sunlight but the right to exercise if I can.

For my condition (while many with it, often cannot exercise at all) it is very important that those who can, continue to do so -but within their own limits & tolerance. That the line is not crossed & that proper rest is had afterwards.

It stimulates endorphins (making up for the research recommended 1/4 dose of anti depressants, that I was dismissively told won't work at that level by my former GP) Endorphins reduce the muscle & joint pain - they are the body's natural powerful painkillers.It is the only time I get very deep, almost refreshing sleep for a few hours afterwards.

Before I was ill I was exercising (weights & running 30miles/week every week) 5 days a week at 7 1/2-9 minute miles. So to shuffle along a path at 17 minutes a mile(walking takes 20) 4 or 5 times a month, if I'm lucky is hardly 'normal' for me.

It's hard enough losing your 'life' to a longterm chronic disabling illness that is dismissed even by many GP's. That attitude & lack of support in itself is mentally very damaging. But to find your Government actively punishing you for being ill & imposing systems that further punish you for any attempt at any quality of life is so unfair. Denying people the right to have any quality of life is likely to make us sicker. Governments spout off propaganda about health & exercise while head-fucking the sick & disabled with this shit- condemning us to a lifetime of further preventable conditions.

It seems if you are on benefit & you make any kind of effort to improve your General Wellbeing you are likely to be judged a cheat.

No matter that 90% of the time you may be housebound or bedbound trying to get enough energy to function at a basic level.

72 hors ago I didn't have enough energy to point the remote at the tv- So I fully rested - Now I'm sitting up (in bed) albeit uncomfortably preparing these notes to save time & energy. Perhaps the foreign prisoners are being freed to make way for the incarceration of us- the longterm sick & disabled-where our access to sunlight, exercise & supplements can be restricted further........it's been done before....now where was that ??

Welfare....the state or condition of doing or being well; good fortune, happiness, or wellbeing (of a person, community, or thing); prosperity
Oxford English Dictionary