The Carer’s Warning To Other Carers

A public drive – to repeal the Mental Capacity Act 2005

This verse is meant for relatives and carers,
To highlight what is daily to the fore
In the NHS; they really ought to spare us,
Find a way around this torment, change the law

When you pitch up late at Accident and Emergency,
With your elderly loved one, sick – and crisis not that far?
You don’t expect to face treatment divergency,
You shouldn’t have to fight for CPR

Please note it’s in NHS Constitution,
‘No rights to treatment’ – all the more so, the demented;
A vice, permitting discontinuation –
They’ll cut off fluids, then withdraw care (‘As they’re exempted’)

Ever seen a flower wilt when you ignore it?
Ever seen it then revive when it seemed gone?
For all it needed was some water to restore it,
But they’ll do this to us, leave us to die, with none…

Leave a pet to dehydrate if it is dying –
You’ll find the full force of authority at your door;
If it’s a relative they force this on – start crying,
As this is part of – as it stands – our country’s law

You hear in disbelief father or mother
No longer has their ‘medical’ support,
When it was obvious that they were getting better,
Just needed a bit more time than people thought

They’ll tell you brazenly that they’re not bothering
With X-Rays – ‘It’s our feel’ (note, ‘feel’, alone)
‘ S/he won’t pull through, there’s some infection gathering’ –
But worst outcomes are never set in stone…

It leaves one quite distraught, no, just despairing,
When this is sprung upon you in the morning,
That an NHS that you thought kind and caring
Could do this to you, and without prior warning

Even POA won’t save them (remit – absent),
Nor the forward care plan you’ve so carefully stored,
You’ll just be told ‘That’s not a legal document’;
It’s ten-to-one their wishes are ignored

How to bypass them, and reassess your case? –
They’ll act as if it’s just their own dominion;
My view is – resist, the high ground’s yours,
Don’t let them talk down all your rights to a second opinion

Make sure you specify at ‘the desk’ what’s been occurring,
What you’re not happy with, in case they’ve ”failed to mention”
To ward staff what’s not ”’agreed”’, and lines are ”’blurring”’ –
And forget not the Court Of Emergency Protection

‘These sanctions never can apply
To ”’normal”’ patients, surely?’;
Well, these, they cut through family ties
And violate unduly

You may think this is being done at random,
I’m afraid the truth is worse, and that is: If
Some physical ailment comes along in tandem,
They’ll rule no one would wish to fight to live!

So they’ll exaggerate, ‘Concerns are looming large’,
When the time comes round to have ‘that little talk’;
Though you’ve the evidence, ‘No, they remain eager for discharge,
Only yesterday they still wanted to eat, drink, walk!’

They’ll press: ‘For just one week more? – if all gets better –
Would your loved one not prefer, to save recurrence,
To simply go now; they’re abusing law and letter;
Emotional entrapment, against the law, and vile abhorrence

Whosoever’s set on snuffing out their candle
Hasn’t spent weeks at the bedside, shared their life,
So I ask you, who would have the better handle?
Could it be their patient’s son, their patient’s wife?

The moment they start up, ‘But s/he is suffering’,
Point out those with capacity also do;
From bluff and bluster, sure, you’re right, there’ll be no buffering,
But do ask why they’ve got more rights than you

When you struggle, plead to represent your patient’s
Spirit, attitudes and values: ‘Don’t go through’,
Not a clue really to satisfy relations,
Just ‘It’s in their own best interests so to do‘

Try all you can, to make them see,
They’ll hear, but they won’t listen;
Their ears work, but: ‘It’s policy’ –
It’s actually a heart you’ll find that’s missing

Objecting families must be told of the ‘Unusual
Factors’, to demolish guidelines, but too many
Say ‘What can you do if for our own refusal
They won’t – or can’t – tell us that there were any’

No one tabulates statistics just how many
Each consultant signs off in this tawdry way,
Something that surely must change if there’s any
Right or justice left within our world today

A ruse to fend off statements
That, when blips and downturns show,
They’re too loathe to maintain treatment,
Too inclined to ‘let old ‘uns go’?

But just suppose – this may be managerial thinking,
That patient turnover’s quite slow; their aspiration
(Or expectation) might in fact be what’s contributing
To bring an increased rate to realisation

Picking up the pieces is a nightmare,
You’re just collateral damage where’er you go;
Decimated by a world supposed to show care,
You’ll soon find out there’s no one wants to know

Those so very quick to pull care in the first place,
Though acknowledged duty bound to explain more,
Know they can’t excuse their actions in your own case,
So raise the drawbridge, shut up shop, then close the door

You submit your damning evidence, but all they’ll give
Back’s their version of events, in short, a sermon;
They’ll just oppose their own – superior – narrative –
The outcome they’ve took pains to predetermine

When you remind them just how bitterly you objected,
Expressed legal reservations to their plans,
You’ll find all protestations, truth, rejected,
No ‘independent evidence’ in their hands

You’ll come to rue the day you ever invested
Trust and confidence in them in the very first place;
They’ll tell you: ‘No care transfer was requested’;
As their refusal, though point blank, was only oral – to your face

For a medic’s word will always be accepted
‘Gainst complainants’ – be it one, two, three or higher –
And though they’ll never actually write it down or say it,
They’ll happily imply that you’re the liar

They’ll know better than to question the integrity of your word,
They’ll just go with their own staff’s, mark it conclusory;
‘So what about all the things we told you we had seen and heard?
Were they imagined, or a lie, or plain illusory?!!’

You can cite chapter and verse, plug away until you curse,
Down pen and paper – ‘What’s the point of me expanding?!’;
You know you did phrase in clear terms, at the time; which makes things worse,
You’ll know they’ve protected – with the ruse, ‘misunderstanding’

So you sit, and fret, how can they have dissented? :
‘You never fought, nor even tried to play your part’;
Fact is they’ve knowingly misrepresented,
Blighted your life, and knifed you in the heart

‘Retribution’ is now a notion ne’er imagined,
It’s ‘Recruitment’ and ‘Retention’ reign supreme,
And as for getting someone actually disciplined –
Forget it, it’s a joke, a forlorn dream

(Is there any advice that I could possibly issue
To spare you from similar heartache and ”discord”?
Just this – for whenever doctors say they ‘want to speak to you’,
Buy a small device – and set it to ‘Record’)

So your very sense of worth’s left cruelly tainted,
You’re disempowered, and disenfranchised by a thief
In an authority presenting itself as sainted,
But thereby stealing essential focus from your grief

Regulatory machines grind into action,
You’re put through all their cogs, and past their pistons;
No mind continuing dissatisfaction,
You’re trapped – and then you’re spat out – by ‘the System’

Regulators who would spin, really say any
Thing to fend off truths, and cover up staff’s tracks;
Seems, to me, at least, there’s far, far, far too many
‘Decorators’ (good at papering over cracks)

You can take your case as long as you have life left
To the police, the Ombudsman and GMC
(The ones whose practices your Trust chose to ignore, cleft),
The doctors’ side is the only one they’ll wish to see

And when you point out that which so indubitably is true –
That what they’ve replied in no way did apply –
They’ll just protect, still throw back at you what they want to;
They’ll spin, avoid, obfuscate and deny

When for the umpteenth time you shake off consternation,
You can dismantle, and oppose, with faultless logic, all the way;
They’ll turn a blind eye and deaf ears to protestations –
It’s ‘See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil’ all the way

It won’t be long before you come to realise,
Derisory rights of appeal lie on the shelves,
They’ve got you tightly by the short and curlies,
These organisations are just laws unto themselves

(When time’s moved on, you’ve lost the other parent,
How you’ll rue whole weeks defending family honour
You couldn’t spend with him/her, thinking up new variant
Means to make them accept those truths they should have done (just didn’t wanna))

***************

You might well ask how legally they’ve the office,
‘Don’t doctors train to keep people alive?’;
It’s very simple, all they need to do is quote this:
‘The Mental Capacity Act 2005’

They’ve misappropriated what this act was meant for,
Usurped its good intentions – run amuck?;
It needs a greater mind than mine to say why this law
Was ever judged fit to be placed on the statute book

The more you look, the readier your conclusion
That this could not be murkier or crazier;
‘Best interests’ is a sham, a fake illusion,
This is no more than involuntary euthanasia

So let’s improve, or, better, scrap this legislation,
Restore dementia sufferers’ rights back to the same
As they stood before its shameful instigation;
What could be worse? For this is inhumane