Invitation to HPC registrants & co

During the last year several people (registrants of the HPC and their clients, patients and employees), have contacted me to tell me about their dreadful experiences with the FTP processes.

One woman was being 'tried' for the third time for the same 'crime' and was well beyond the end of her tether. The patient had complained to the NHS who had listened and decided there was no case, then to the Quality Care Commission, who had listened and found there was no case to answer, and then to the HPC who had ... put their machinery into operation, heeding neither the NHS nor the QCC, nor even their common sense, only to find, months and months later, that ... there was no case to answer. Three times! For exactly the same complaint!

Another case was of a very well known and respected woman who had herself raised a question about the staff in an agency where she once been contracted to work. This irked the agency who found their way to complain about her in their turn. After months and months of work, and loads and loads of money, the case was finally dismissed.

There is a complaint from an individual against one of his NHS bosses. This boss turns out to be a senior member of the profession, a regular visitor to the HPC. The complainant was (therefore?) told there was no case... However, he continues to hold onto the logic of his case, and writes to the HPC regularly. He is trying to call them to account, and is pursuing his argument tenaciously.

Another woman has been trying to get a response from a registrant whose work damaged the relationship she had with her son. The HPC have no resources to offer her, and can only add to her increasing distress.

There are more. Those caught up in the FTP process are very unwilling to tell their story in public for fear of retribution from the HPC. Others are so immersed in the turmoil that writing about it is the last thing on their minds. People I've spoken to after the hearing is over usually just want to disappear back into their lives and try to rebuild their relationships and routines.

This is simply terrible. What is there to be done?

Many people exclaim: it's a waste of tax payers money!

But before dismissing this as untrue, it's really worth thinking about this in detail. The fee that the registrants pay must be agreed in parliament and passed by law. This fee is then levied exactly like a tax. However, the familiar cry: No Taxation Without Representation is not heeded here. The registrants of the HPC cannot vote on the way the money is spent, and cannot call the officials to account for wasting the money they have paid them. It looks more and more like a stealth tax, and one without representation!

A few people have suggested that I open up this blog to other writers and make sections for each of the different professional groups (15 of them at present in the HPC). If you know someone who would like to write an entry, do encourage them to get in touch (click my name in the Contributors Side Panel at the bottom of the list to find my email address). My aim here is to expose the mechanisms of harm, and to show through actual examples what is really going on. It is this kind of real evidence that can convince people gently, and that can even produce a pacifying effect to the otherwise pernicious experience. It's an appeal to natural justice, with the aim of learning from the mistake (no matter who made it) and of making things better for others in the future. At the moment, the HPC is wasting opportunities for learning, and turning local spats into major incidents; this is very negative overall.

In the meantime, anyone can post a comment on any of the articles already here, and these comments can be anonymous. I am more than happy to engage in a conversation, if you are willing to take the time.

Janet