Hounslow Disabilities Montage 2

Hello, my name is Celia Golden. I'm the Head of Equality and Human Rights for London Borough of Hounslow. I'm here today to say a few words about the law relating to disability but also about an incredibly inspiring project that we're doing with a surgeon from West Middlesex Hospital and in particular with regard to a website that we're working to set up with you. I was diagnosed with glaucoma in 2006 and since then my sight just gradually gets worse. Well I've been into Moorfields and I've been into Charing Cross and both experiences were good. Well my patient experience is that, as I've said, I've been to the hospital quite a lot of times. The experience I've had is at night time when you're admitted in the hospital. And that's the worst experience I've had, is that you're lying in your bed and there's no, well there's a buzzer there, but there's no, somehow some nurses, I'm sorry to say this, but some nurses put their buzzers away somewhere else, above you so you can't reach it. My only downside was, obviously as you've been in A&E for nearly six to seven hours, we generally need to go for the toilet. I had to shout out at least four or five times. I found the experience in hospital quite interesting and staff were quite good at explaining when I asked them if they would explain who they were because I can't read name tags and they explained all the procedures that they were doing. Unexpected issues, just some of the responses from the NHS and local managers about his care. When he went to the epilepsy school, his residential one into Friday, we thought his local GP would continue to be his local GP until we had a letter in the post saying that he does no longer have a GP in the local area. We would have to register him every week as a temporary patient. Anywhere you go I think you should make everybody aware of your eyesight so they're more helpful And if anybody says to you, oh, it's over there, say instantly, where is over there? Because they walk away and think that over there is sufficient for you. So please say to anybody, please show me where it is. Don't accept over there. In my role as a scrutiny member, we've made a great deal of play of how to treat patients in a hospital setting. One of the amazing things that I found, except for the tablets, my lunches, my breakfast and my evening meal were put on a tray miles away from me and I had to wait until somebody could come and move the tray so that I could enjoy, or otherwise, meal that was in front of me. The other irksome thing was you were not allowed to vary the diet. So the problem I had, as I'm allergic to things like mayonnaise and I have a distinct dislike to spicy foods, that often I had to have a boring old jacket potato with grated cheese because they would not either get a dietitian to help me or listen to any variations on the diet. The information you've seen so far has been about people who are visually impaired specifically and disabled people who have been treated a certain way by medical practitioners, by the NHS or by doctors and nurses. We want to know what experience you've had in this industry and sector and make sure that you guys share the information with us. Finally, what I want to say to you is, I would really welcome more of you sharing your experiences because the more you share, the more likelihood that you're helping somebody else who isn't able to share. And that would mean that nurses, doctors, surgeons, all who view this video can actually use it, understand how your experience has ought to be improved so if we can help improve services then that's what we ought to be doing so this is really a massive plea to you if you're a patient or if you're going into hospital if you've had an experience then please I would advise you to share your story about access to health care so by uploading it yourself onto a website called healthshare.com so I really appreciate you getting involved with us in this project. The more of us that do that, the more likely that these things will change and improve on behalf of the wider society. So thank you very much for hearing me and do get in touch with us through our website. Thank you very much. Bye bye.