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My diet, already restricted, is being further restricted

Posted By Darker653

"My diet, already restricted, is being further restricted"

About: Adult community services / Nutrition and dietetics

(as the patient),

I am on a restricted diet- The service provided for my requirements (with regard to prescriptions) is very efficient.. telephone or leave a message... prescription arrives within a few days.

Dietician is very good. However I do not always require an annual appointment.

The only issue I have is:

The wording of the letter.. If I fail to comply and do not make an appointments.. the service will be withdrawn (not verbatim)

I find this unacceptable, far too authoritative and overbearing.. infact, I find it quite threatening! (do as we say or else)

Also, the unit allocation.. I can only have 16 units.. want extra? no! (or swap one for one) It's for my health, I'm told - I am in reasonable health (apart from other illnesses) I don't over-indulge, I'm not fat and I don't drink or smoke to excess - why is my diet (which is already restricted) being even more restricted by this government?

I cannot order or eat something different unless I don't have bread, i.e. swap for other units/food!

Basically I feel a "one cap fits all" is not appropriate

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Responses

Response from Grace Oldfield, Patient Involvement Manager, Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust 11 years ago
Grace Oldfield
Patient Involvement Manager,
Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust

As part of my role, I support clinical services who undertake patient and public involvement on behalf of The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust which helps us to develop or redesign our services with patients in mind, from the valuable feedback we are given.

Submitted on 30/10/2012 at 11:31
Published on Care Opinion at 13:50

Dear Darker653, thank you for taking the time to post your comments on the Patient Opinion web site, patient feedback is important to us and your kind comments around requesting prescriptions is very efficient and that our Dieticians are very good.

However, with regard to the issues you have raised around an annual appointment, the Commissioners of the service at the PCT want to have reassurances that patients with long term conditions have at least, as a minimum, an annual review, and we are therefore required to adhere with this policy requirement. As a matter of course, all GPs would be involved in an annual review with patients and we are mirroring with this process.

It is a requirement for us to do this and if you feel you do not want to be involved you will be unable to access the budget available for dietary products as this is stated by the GPs.

The amounts identified for patients have been worked out according to nutritional content which allows access to all patients who require gluten free products and ensures we are equitable to everyone and therefore the amounts allowed are carefully calculated.

The budget is not infinite and we provide in Rotherham a larger amount than other PCTs, and in some cases, all prescribing has been stopped. As the budget is used for all patients who may become diagnosed, the amounts may have to be reduced in the future, if we continue to get an increase in diagnosis, which will be a decision made by the GPs of Rotherham

I do hope the above explanation goes someway into addressing your issues.

With best wishes,

Grace

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