You and your health (1979)

ladies and gentlemen you're very good health foreign thank goodness for the national health service but many of us don't really use it as a health service at all merely as a sort of human body repair shop or service station did you know that out of every pound spent by the government over 10 pence goes on health and social services in wales alone the health service costs every man woman and child over two pounds every week at 1978 prices it would be interesting to know how much of that is spent on illnesses that we bring on ourselves many people of course are in hospital through no fault of their own there but for the grace of god pictures like this make you realize how fortunate most of us really are the health service doesn't just consist of hospitals and ambulances of course family doctors health visitors midwives and many others do their best to detect early signs of trouble and to ward it off in some areas health authorities run a health education service which aims to persuade people to look after their own health more effectively and so reduce their need to depend on the health repair facilities all of these services need hundreds of people to maintain them doctors nurses midwives health visitors radiographers pharmacists porters theater technicians orders physiotherapists pharmacists dentists opticians pathologists ambulance drivers clerks administrators telephonists engineers chiropodists the list is almost endless in wales alone the health service employs roughly fifty thousand people and the number is increasing by well over a thousand every year it takes some doing to control an organization like that no wonder it's a bit like the maze in hampton court c h c what's that you ask a cardiff hockey club no cloyd hunting center no camaron highland circle no trickier hikers and climbers no it means community health council do you know what that is well i should imagine um community building the area around somewhere and its health and how are you going to look after it or what problems there are have you heard of the community health council no no i don't think so i've heard of it yes do you know much about it no what i know about them is from what i've heard on television that they deal with problems within the health service really but all the coastal networks are all over there and great things from the corner you're having a little boy here going to hospital if you were dissatisfied with the way in which they treated him what would you do about it to take the matter further um i'm not sure who to get into contact with but i would definitely take it further oh no i find you're still very good because uh i took the top of my finger off in match and it's perfect no well that's one satisfied customer at least remember if you chop off the top of your finger don't let the wife saw it back on again get the nhs to do the job instead but seriously if you don't know much about the chc come in and find out more about us hello the community health council or the chc as we call it is your voice in the national health service we don't actually run any part of the health service that's the job of the area health authority the community health council is a consumer advisory body established by the government to protect your interests we're here to help and advise if you run into difficulties with the health service or have any complaints against it we're here to monitor the standard of the local services provided and also to try to ensure that those services are developed in a way that meets the real needs of the local community fine talk you may think but what does it all add up to in practice let's look at a few examples yes that's fine thank you very much he says i'll be all right now for the next few months all right so then mrs jenkins it will send you a reminder to come again in about six months time that's 20 pounds please oh i thought it was much less than that under the national health yes it is on the nhs but you've been treated privately what do you mean privately i never asked for private treatment well i'm afraid mrs jenkins that all treatment is private treatment unless you ask for it specifically under the nhs you didn't ask therefore the treatment is private oh come on now that can't be right didn't cost me anything before did you know you supposed to ask for treatment under the national health service unfortunately the receptionist was right tuna that's just a simple bit of advice from the community health council when you go to the dentist always make it clear before you have any treatment at all if you want it on the national health service it's too late afterwards hmm too late afterwards that's it mind you many chcs have taken it much further than that they're trying to ensure that all dentists have to ask patients if they want nhs treatment and many of us would like to see the present position reversed with all dentists automatically giving nhs treatment unless someone specifically asks for private treatment and we're trying to persuade the government to see our point of view and change the regulations hello what's happening now this is a set of spectacle frames all available on the nhs but unfortunately you won't see all of them displayed in every optician's shop many customers almost automatically go for more expensive private frames just because they don't know what's available on the health service so remember ask to see the nhs range first chcs are urging the government to require all opticians to display the whole range of frames and their prices we've also been pressing for more updated designs too here's something else that has been worrying chc's quite a bit it's a drug called eraldin or practolol and it was given to a large number of patients suffering from heart conditions between 1970 and 1975. thea james from martha tidwell took the drug but later found that it had a number of very unfortunate side effects well before i started to take it around in 1972 i did not have any of these illnesses after i'd been on the route in a short time my vision started to go after that i started developing the manias disease and stomach complaints and i was very very ill i'm still ill and in fact i've been pretty in love the last couple of months with the stomach and chest and the only common denominator for the onset of my illnesses is the fact that they occurred after i started the treatment of their alden which i took for three and a half years and i was taking the high dosage of it in tablets six a day so what can the chc do about a problem like that i find that members are getting a little bit disconcerted that they don't feel you know there's any significant pro progress and i'm just wondering what's up bryn williams secretary of the local community health council discusses the problem with colleagues and a professional advisor first of all we tried to establish how many people had taken a ralden in our locality on what kinds of side effects they had suffered the manufacturers while not admitting any legal liability were prepared to consider claims for compensation for a number of side effects we advise people how to claim compensation and refer them to solicitors and medical specialists where necessary by keeping a careful record of conditions for which the manufacturers do not present pay compensation we hope to persuade them to widen the scope of the scheme to include more sufferers we're also very anxious to try to make sure that this sort of thing doesn't happen in future with other new drugs we urge the government to ensure more stricter tests before new drugs can be put on the market and to establish a more effective monitoring system once they are in use the important thing is that individual patients should not be left to fight the battles alone society must help those who have suffered through no fault of their own as you see chcs deal with a very wide variety of issues but most of our problems relate to doctors and hospitals the sort of problem we're looking at now could be repeated a thousand times over i think we'd be elected consultant have a look at you mrs evans just to make sure can you take this note talk post it if you like to the general and then they'll let you know when to go into investigation all right right thank you doctor that's all right then it may be a few weeks before they see you but there's nothing to worry about i'll see you again when we've had the results of the investigation all right good night look mom it's over six weeks since you sent that letter to the hospital there's no point morning here i want four now to see how much longer you've got to wait oh don't bother dear they're saying for me when they're ready for me hello um do you make a point to us to see dr rowan oh well dr parry my mother's doctor sent a letter over six weeks ago and we still haven't heard anything no what nine months can't they see you before then no all right then thank you very much goodbye she said there's so many people waiting to see him you'll have to wait nine months nine months yes i thought that dr paddy said it would only be a couple of weeks oh i said there was no point in phoning didn't i you've just got to wait till they're ready for you gonna phone the hospital again it's silly you can't go on suffering like this now sit down well i gone forward oh no no it's no good dan there's no point to making a fuss they said they'd have to wait nine months so they won't see me yet no i know oh now look you'd only make me worse if you start arguing i've just got to grin and bury it and wait till my turn comes if you really want to make me feel better or make my caputi will you back all right well was mother right has she got a grin and bear it until she's sent for well yes i suppose all after all there's not supposed to be any queue jumping in the nhs no you're right there no one should jump the queue not unless there's a good reason for it but if you think your condition is getting worse while you're waiting to hear from the hospital don't hesitate to consult your doctor again and if he thinks it necessary he'll arrange a more urgent appointment for you got it yes got it don't hesitate to consult your own doctor again if you think you're getting worse long waiting lists are a headache of course chcs get hold of the facts and try to hammer out suggestions for ways in which the health authorities might try to bring them down you see a chc though basically a consumer body is also concerned about overall standards and the extent of health service facilities in its area and it will do everything in its power to help the area health authority improve the standards provided in fact the area health authorities just cannot ignore what the chc says they have to consult the community health council by law before they introduce any basic changes to their services and if the chc doesn't agree with the health authorities proposals the matter is referred to the secretary of state hmm yes you might ask who will the chc that they should have such influence their job is to represent you the patient the consumer and the local community but who are they you're thinking who chooses them there are 22 chcs in wales and their membership varies from 15 to 32 according to the population of the area they serve at least one half of the members are chosen by the local authorities in the area at least a third are chosen by voluntary organizations with a special interest in health like the red cross and john's ambulance the wrvs leagues of hospital friends or the society for mentally handicapped children the remainder are appointed by the secretary of state to make sure that all parts of the area and all major interest groups are covered so whilst not directly elected the chc does contain a representative cross-section of the local community that doesn't mean however that the chc thinks it always knows what the public wants great pains are taken to try to find out just what you think about local issues such as a proposal to close a hospital or transfer a clinic or add fluoride to the water apart from holding public meetings chcs also organize exhibitions and conferences arrange meetings for voluntary organizations and send speakers to local voluntary bodies others carry out on the street surveys to find out what individual people think about certain issues and all that activity isn't for nothing area health authorities do take some notice for example the health authority wanted to close this hospital which was surplus to requirements but following representations from the chc the authority agreed to support our proposals that it should be used for the mentally handicapped unfortunately on this occasion we failed to persuade the secretary of state that it was a viable plan but the secretary of state did support the chc when a hospital for elderly people was threatened with closure in the same locality and the hospital was kept open and in the same way several hospitals in other parts of wales have been kept open largely due to the initiative shown by the local chc backed by their local community apart from their other duties chc members pay regular visits to hospitals and clinics in their area to see for themselves that the service is running smoothly we spoke with mrs ann cloyd roberts a member of the cardiff chc as she completed such a visit to the university hospital in cardiff well i've just finished being a patient myself i spent a fortnight in hospital and then went to outpatients on about eight separate occasions and i know that many times i had complaints to make about the long waits that i had in our patients sometimes up to two and a half hours and nobody ever explained to me why i was waiting now i think we've got a right to know if we're kept waiting after our appointment time and we the chc members can help you find the reasons for these sort of weights the many things that happen to us when we are patients in hospital or when we're patients with a family doctor and sometimes we've got very real complaints and sometimes we've got suggestions to make about these sort of improvements we'd like to see in the health service now again if you don't want to make those suggestions or those complaints directly either to the hospital or to the family practitioner committee then you can make them through your chc member we're here to help you make those complaints or suggestions i think chcs can cover a very wide variety of subjects not simply hospitals and doctors as i've tried to explain and if you want to get hold of us you can find us in the telephone directory under community health council or you can get in touch with the health authorities and ask for your chc number we're here to help you well do you know a bit more about the chc now don't tell me you've been sleeping all the time and i've been wasting my breath well what do you know about a chc chc stands for community health council it is an official consumer body independent of the health service itself its job is to help and advise with any individual problems in the health service other than clinical matters chc members visit health service premises to help ensure that the highest possible standards are being maintained chc members discuss general health problems affecting the locality and they want to know your views which they will pass on to the health authority and to the government the health authority has to consult the c h c on any proposed changes in the health service in its area if the chc disapproves the matter is automatically referred to the secretary of state it's your health we're concerned with and the level of health facilities in your area if you're worried about either stop for a moment take time out to phone or visit your local chc the address and number is in the telephone directory under community health councils remember we are at your service our concern is your health you