30th June 2009 -The end of a long struggle - a parting note from our chairman.
There comes a time when you have to decide whether it is worth swimming against the tide. That time has come.
Since 2004 Feedback South London has been slogging away in an attempt to enable service user views to be presented at every possible level within the NHS, local authorities and the various quangos that operate invisbly making decisions that affect our everyday lives. At every juncture obstacles have been placed in our way. Those who undertook to cover our expenses used every kind of ploy to withold that money and even now sought to reverse roles and try to create a form of contract that completely undermined the basis on which we work and to which they signed up.
This group has kept going based on the strenuous efforts of a small number of people. Hundreds of people have attended our various meetings but there remained only a very small handful who were prepared to do the actual donkey work. Meanwhile we have found ourselves targeted by some very unpleasant people who sought to marginalise us and who have used every kind of underhand tactic to attack us. We have refrained from commenting on most of this.
What alarms me is the readiness of small nummber of service users to liaise with that process. For the life of me I cannot see what they can hope to gain. Perhaps these people believe we are given shovel loads of money for doing what we do. We are not. We are entirely unpaid. Only out of pocket expenses are allowed.
Over the last few years I have made many friends. This has been a rewarding period in many ways. I have encountered people of different cultures who have broadened my knowledge of their backgrounds, needs and aspirations. They are the majority.
Recently the HIV community in South London has been traumatised by the antics of a particularly sinister group. I can reveal little more at this stage but watch this space. The group concerned is causing immense harm. From our point of view we have decided we cannot continue to put ourselves at risk. However the full story will be published soon.
During the last few weeks two of us have had our cars vandalised. That is just the beginning of the story.
Feedback South London will no longer hold meetings. It is no longer provided with any funding for any of its activities. The website will continue and you are welcome to submit contributions to be placed on this page. There is a need for an avenue of communication which is not influenced by the narrow vested interests of the medical profession, the pharmaceutical industry or the criminal fringe that invariably attaches itself to a vulnerable minority. There is a need for something free from the bullying grip of the graducrats and the incestuous HIV industry.
From time to time people within the NHS have complained about the content of this page. Believe me when I tell you that what is published here is the tip of the thin end of a very substantial wedge. What I have witnessed ranks, in my eyes, as corruption writ large. The more I see the more I realise that it is so endemic it is beyond the power of a small group of individuals to counter. Don't assume, though, that this corruption is particularly organised. It is merely individuals who are well placed to do maximum damage.
On the other hand I have encountered a good number of very honest and worthwhile people working within the system. Unfortunately their efforts invariably come up against obstacles created by individuals who might best be described as "jobsworths". Armed with paper qualifications they excel at nothing except conspiring to cover their tracks and safeguard their pay packets. They cover their lack of talent with mountains of phony statistics pretending to provide evidence of services which, in practice, are not delivered because the entire budgets are consumed creating the statistics.
Keep watching this space - best wishes - John |
