Hi there from Down Undeer!!
Some rain overnight, Yes, the stuff we have seen twice since Christmas.
And a nice, cool 20 degree day.
I spent most of it in a room with other healthcare consumers looking at the second draft of a revised Australian 'Charter of Patient Rights'. We were quite vocal with the 2 poor presenters in term of ideas and not accepting any watering down.
For example we wished for patients or their representative to not only have access to read their clinical record, particularly in hospital, but to also write or have other record like auditory etc in the record. For example If I read my record and noted something I could write." I note that it has not been recorded that I am also allergic to Drug X" - that could mean the difference between life and death !!
But you say, you just tell the nurse or doctor. But what if they get distracted? As one participant said,' The nurse wrote the information I gave him on a serviette and dropped it on the way out'!!
The response from the People in Government was: "Well he would need to ask the clinicians and hospitals."
To which one of us said: " But they will just see it as extra work. And anyway have you ever seen a policy that bans people writing in their own notes? And by what legal right could they do so?"
The chilling thing is that there is a 'record-keeping mantra' taught to clinicians, I was told:
" If it is not written down, it did not happen". So if the clinician does not write something in the record, how can the patient later prove that he or she did say this or that etc? Or that this or that happened".
The meeting required a 130% of usual basal rate - that seemed to keep me under control, except verbally. !!!!!
