"Any faith I had left was shattered"

I waited over a year for an appointment with pain management as I’m allergic to codeine and have a degenerative genetic disorder.  The staff member I saw was so rude and so dismissive, the appointment didn’t last any longer than a couple of mins where I was told there was no help for me, no pain management options.  

My spine is crumbling, my central nervous system is haywire an I had chronic pain. To be told at 47 that the only options are paracetamol for the rest of my life was very disheartening.  There was no help, no offer of anything apart from group sessions to discuss my pain.  I was so disheartened, disappointed and shocked that it has affected my relationship with the NHS and especially wythenshawe hospital.  

I’ve already had counselling for PTSD to deal with how I was treated at wythenshawe hospital when I had breast cancer, I can’t walk through the doors at that hospital without fighting a panic attack and being convinced that a staff member is going to kill me in there by not even knowing my name.

Any faith I had left was shattered that day at the pain management clinic, I was dismissed an ignored which has been my experience of that hospital for that last 12 years and it was brutally reinforced that day.  The staff member I saw just didn’t care at all, they barely looked at me. I now don’t engage with the NHS unless I’m unconscious an the decision is taken away from me which unfortunately with my condition does happen.

Strangely enough my GP that very same day I was refused help prescribed me opiate patches that should have come from the pain management clinic, they could have dealt with my pain but they don want to.  They keep inviting me to these group sessions because talking therapy helps but I’m just going to sit there and discuss the biggest problem with my pain is how wythenshawe hospital chooses to be selective in who it treats.  

My frustration is not how my condition affects me, it’s how they ignore me. I’m sick of watching what I think is a dysfunctional failing system run by lazy uncaring people where the NHS is being sold as amazing because I don't think it is.

I feel there is a very inefficient, self serving toxic culture at wythenshawe hospital an it affects patient care horrifically.