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Bolton Mental Health Failings

Story from nhs.uk

"Bolton Mental Health Failings"

About: Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

This review is regarding the BAS - Bolton mental health assessment unit only. I was referred by my GP firstly to a nurse who was very professional then next a psychiatrist who ignored my symptoms even after raising my concerns but instead kept leaving the room answering their mobile phone. Proceeding to diagnose me with general anxiety disorder and discharging me. I later rang back to say I was getting worse only to be told I’d have get a referral again from my GP which I did. A month or so later I had a psychotic breakdown hearing voices and hallucinations of things moving under my scalp leading to me stabbing and slashing my head and being hospitalised. I was then referred to a home treatment team who were brilliant. I did not find out until the 4th Dec from my GP the BAS had refused my request for help saying I can try out of my area ( Bolton ) if I wanted just not with them. The BAS sent this to my GP on the 27th Nov. I needed help and asked for it but it fell on deaf ears whilst I was becoming more and more ill and it ended with me being put in a very lonely dangerous position.

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Responses

Response from Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust 5 years ago
Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 20/12/2018 at 16:24
Published on nhs.uk at 17:05

Dear DM,

Thank you for taking the time to write your review. I am really sorry that you had a poor experience with Bolton Assessment Service and am concerned about the issues you have raised. We aim to provide a high quality service and are always keen to learn from the experiences of our service users and their families.

To address your concerns about the referral process and the support you received, I thought it would be helpful to outline the standard procedure. Bolton Assessment Service accepts referrals mostly from GP’s in the Bolton district. Self-referrals are not currently accepted. The service is made up of mental health nurses and doctors. The doctor’s will provide medication reviews and diagnostic assessments.

It is concerning you mentioned the doctor, who saw you, was using his mobile phone during your assessment. This is not acceptable and we would like to look into this further.

In terms of your diagnosis, your historical electronic notes will have been reviewed as well as your current presentation. A diagnostic assessment would have then been conducted and a formal diagnosis made. It is accepted that diagnostic assessment can sometimes be incorrect, change over time and occasionally patients are unhappy with the diagnosis they have been given. When this happens, the advice we provide is that a second opinion can be sought via the NHS Choices Framework. This framework provides patients with the choice to seek a second opinion from another service or district. This is what I think is the letter your GP received.

Without knowing your personal details I can only respond in a generic way to a couple of your points. I would welcome the opportunity to look into this matter and see what can be done to help you, if you’d like me to do this, please contact our Customer Care Team on 0161 358 0600 or by email at customercare@gmmh.nhs.uk.

I look forward to hearing from soon.

Kind regards,

Marc Lowden

Mental Health Practitioner, Bolton Assessment Service.

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