Interview with Nicola Smith from the patient advocacy service My Medical Choice
Medical malpractice is a widespread issue. Patient advocacy services are desperately needed to protect people from those who swore to 'do no harm'.
The so-called COVID-19 pandemic brought up numerous ethical issues. Governments and healthcare providers treated us like animals with no rights at all, not even to know how or why we are treated in hospitals. Informed consent was completely dismissed. This isn't a new thing because medical malpractice is a leading cause of death, but with COVID-19, the violation was so noticeable that people began to look for ways to protect themselves from those who swore to ‘do no harm’. One of these options is the UK-based My Medical Choice service, whose founding member Nicola Smith agreed to answer my questions, which you may find helpful.
What motivated the development of My Medical Choice?
Myself and some friends were concerned initially about being given contaminated blood in an emergency situation whilst unable to communicate. People were just starting to wake up to the possibility of getting vaccinated by proxy through transfusions. About the same time, which was early 2021, someone I knew was ‘kidnapped’, for want of a better word, by my local hospital. The hospital was trying to coerce him into having Covid tests and preventing his wife (who has Power of Attorney for him) from seeing him or even speaking to him via mobile phone. He deteriorated rapidly, and his wife thought they were going to ventilate him. I got involved and put the CEO of the hospital trust on formal Notice to demand answers regarding the removal of this man’s rights and to let the CEO know that we held her responsible for her staff’s unlawful actions and, amazingly, the patient’s wife was allowed to talk to him the next day and then see him within 48 hours. That’s when a few of us decided we needed a service like My Medical Choice.
How can My Medical Choice Help People?
My Medical Choice provides a medical alert system to automatically notify a member’s emergency contact or Power of Attorney that they are in hospital and to warn NHS staff that the member does not accept NHS-donated blood and blood products. The NHS can log into a private account page via the member’s medical alert tag and/or their portable Advance Decision Notice (ADN, or living will) and read crucial medical information, access private blood donor’s details, and the ADN lists the medical treatments and procedures the member rejects. It’s a system for medical protection when the members cannot speak for themselves.
What else can be done to protect the rights of patients?
Education and support. We provide educational material to members that enables them to learn their rights and how to enforce them. We also seek to educate medical staff on patients’ rights and remind them of their legal obligations. We support our members by raising awareness of their rights within hospital trusts, and provide a Pre-op Consultation Pack to print off to take to appointments that walks members through pre-operative consultation. We are also working on an advocacy service to enable advocates to accompany members to appointments for advice and support.
Can you tell me what blood donation options are available to patients UK?
At present, there are only three blood donation options available to members: standard NHS-donated blood, private donation through our Safe Blood system, and autologous blood donation (the patient’s own blood or cells recycled). Obviously, with the risk of contaminated blood from the NHS blood banks being so high, all of our members refuse this option. Most members prefer to use private donors – or direct donation, as the NHS calls it. However, success is patchy at present depending on where you live and there is a fair amount of pushback on private donors from NHS staff. That said, feedback suggests consultants ARE being asked for this option more and more, so awareness of the issue is growing and some members are having their request accepted without too many problems. We believe private donation- once the NHS has tested for compatibility, of course – should be available to all, and there is no excuse for denying this option to a patient that asks for it. The NHS states on its website: “…transfusion services discourage donation by parents, relatives or friends (so-called direct donation) for medical reasons”. Of course, the excuse of “medical reasons” is not viable if the private donor is pre-screened like any other donor. And the key word, in legal terms, is “discourage”. In other words, they have no lawful or legal right to refuse it if the donor is compatible and passes the screening process. Using the patient’s own blood is very hard to refuse. Some hospitals say they don’t have the equipment… However, when they are shown the hospital trust’s Patient Protocol document, or they realize our members know what they’re talking about, then we find the option becomes available. The member may have to have their operation at another hospital within the trust, but they get the treatment that they need. I would add that we also encourage our members to learn about non-blood alternatives to transfusion, as there are many options and they are well-established in Western hospitals. We also provide a Help Sheet ‘Optimising Blood for Surgery’ in which we suggest ways members can get their blood into tip top condition to reduce complications from, say anemia, in surgery.
If you have any additional queries, visit the My Medical Choice FAQ page at https://www.my-medical-choice.org/faq or get in touch with them at https://www.my-medical-choice.org/contact .
*I am not affiliated with My Medical Choice, and I am not being paid for this interview. It is not an advertisement. It was created solely for informational purposes.
More information about COVID-19 vaccines and blood supply can be found in my previous article on the subject.
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