United Kingdom News (including UK wide, England, NI and Wales - see separate thread for news from Scotland)

Disability charity is ordered to pay £150,000 to disabled employee with long Covid​


AI Summary:
A disability charity, Shared Lives South West, has been ordered to pay £152,745 to William Drysdale-Wood after a tribunal found he was unfairly dismissed and discriminated against due to his disabilities.
Drysdale-Wood worked as a shared lives coordinator from September 2015 until his dismissal in September 2023.
He had Crohn’s disease and was later diagnosed with long Covid and chronic fatigue syndrome.
After periods of sickness absence and a phased return to work, he attended two capability meetings in September 2023.
He was dismissed the day after the second meeting on the grounds of ill health.
The tribunal ruled that the capability process was “remarkably brief” and did not allow him to demonstrate improvement.
The judge found the charity could have used less discriminatory measures, such as tolerating limited absences, instead of dismissal.
The dismissal contributed to a deterioration in his health.
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I don't want to detract at the BACME letter topic, so asking here.

Jonathan Edwards said:
Absolutely, and advocacy groups calling for special mutidisciplinary ME/CFS services - just like what we have now "in the community" (which inevitably means cheap and useless). I think there may be some progress in getting these groups to see the problem. Maybe we shall see on Monday.
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Does anyone know if LC charities are aware of the problem? All I've seen in that space is complaining about the closure of LC clinics (or merging with ME/CFS services) while calling for multidisciplinary clinics providing holistic care. Given the aforementioned merging of the services, it's even more important that they are aware of the pitfalls.
 
Felis Catus said:
Does anyone know if LC charities are aware of the problem? All I've seen in that space is complaining about the closure of LC clinics (or merging with ME/CFS services) while calling for multidisciplinary clinics providing holistic care. Given the aforementioned merging of the services, it's even more important that they are aware of the pitfalls.
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This is a big problem I think. People with Long Covid are mostly still learning the ropes about service options and, yes, are just calling for multidisciplinary 'holistic' care. The clearer perspective comes from ME/CFS long haulers who have seen what happens over decades.
 
I suspect when people call for multidisciplinary clinics they are imagining seeing a range of doctors from different specialisms to investigate and treat their symptoms in different parts of the body.

They wait months or years, only to find it's an online group short course run by one of a random selection of a physio, OT or psych therapist all offering the same BACME style advice about sleep hygiene, pacing up and with a bit of breathing exercises thrown in.
 
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Binita Kane on LinkedIn:

Just over a year ago, I left my 25 year NHS career to dedicate my life to a group of patients who remain largely unseen and unheard by the NHS - people with severe Long COVID and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME). Despite hundreds of thousands affected, to this day, there are no commissioned NHS services for those at the severe end of the spectrum - though patient advocates, charities and some MPs are working hard to change this.
The transition to the independent sector was never in my life plan - it happened organically. I am very grateful to HLTH Compliance for inviting me onto their podcast to share my journey and experiences of setting up the clinic, which emulates a tertiary level specialist interdisciplinary service - with one important difference - my patients are all over the country and so are my team. My most severe patients are bedbound, tube-fed, have 24/7 full-time care and no regular NHS support outside of their GP (+ possibly a dietician).
Here I talk about how it happened, my road to getting independent CQC registration, as well as the broader challenges of treating Long COVID and ME.

Long Covid Kids Long Covid Support Karen Hargrave Action for ME Solve ME/CFS Initiative ME Association ME Research UK

lnkd.in

LinkedIn

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
lnkd.in lnkd.in

I haven’t watched this myself so far.
 
It is worth watching if you have 52 minutes available.
Binita Kane is running a physician led service much as is being suggested on our recent thread, but in the private sector and with the difference that she recommends off label prescribing and makes use of concepts about disease mechanisms not many of us would follow.

She mentions the impasse with the consultation on the DHSC plan.
 
Dolphin said:
Binita Kane on LinkedIn:

Just over a year ago, I left my 25 year NHS career to dedicate my life to a group of patients who remain largely unseen and unheard by the NHS - people with severe Long COVID and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME). Despite hundreds of thousands affected, to this day, there are no commissioned NHS services for those at the severe end of the spectrum - though patient advocates, charities and some MPs are working hard to change this.
The transition to the independent sector was never in my life plan - it happened organically. I am very grateful to HLTH Compliance for inviting me onto their podcast to share my journey and experiences of setting up the clinic, which emulates a tertiary level specialist interdisciplinary service - with one important difference - my patients are all over the country and so are my team. My most severe patients are bedbound, tube-fed, have 24/7 full-time care and no regular NHS support outside of their GP (+ possibly a dietician).
Here I talk about how it happened, my road to getting independent CQC registration, as well as the broader challenges of treating Long COVID and ME.

Long Covid Kids Long Covid Support Karen Hargrave Action for ME Solve ME/CFS Initiative ME Association ME Research UK

lnkd.in

LinkedIn

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
lnkd.in lnkd.in

I haven’t watched this myself so far.
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Comment underneath
Well done Binita. Your patients so lucky to have you. I may steer a family member in your direction.


View Binita Kane’s graphic link

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Thanks for your unwavering support X. Just a warning that the waiting time is long (up to 10 months if waiting for me), but I have 2 fab GP colleagues who would be able to see them sooner if needed.
 
Nightsong said:
Kane's "Long COVID clinic" website (link)
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At 14:17 in her interview video, Dr Kane defines how she remotely helps around 11 tube-fed and peg-fed people who cannot advocate for themselves, who have full-time family care, a GP, very little help from the system, some have dietitians, and none have input from NHS or ME/CFS specialist services.

She might medicate some of the symptoms, based on home-testing / studies etc. Commercially its not impossible.

Do those people trying to solve the current hospital cases know this??

Patients are supposed to have the choice through NHS out-sourced contracts. But that needs structuring with the NHS commissioners methodically approached by that charitable consortium - which apparently forgot to mention it - at least until ready to tender for it themelves. In this intensely competitive market.

These consorts seem to represent The Tyson Rehab Academy, the 25% ME Group, BACME, ELAROS, MEA and ME/CFS specialist clinics due to renew NHS-subsidised contracts, as - Professor Tyson allows - inconsistently concerned in malnutrition.
 
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the specialist GPs assisting Dr Kane with holistic interests and considerable knowledge, did on the whole recover themselves from Long Covid and now focus on methods seeming to recover LC patients.

Another highlight is how this clinic unusually pioneered a clinical research structure, so that we might find out if various methods are testable and reproducible, or not - there is commitment to publish whatever the result.

"With my colleague Professor Mark Faghy at the University of Derby, we’re embedding real-world research into everything we do.

"Research and Advocacy

"Dr Kane is actively involved in collaborative research with Professor Mark Faghy (University of Derby), leading a clinic-based research programme with approved ethics for publication of real-word data.

"She has worked alongside clinicians and researchers internationally, and is a member of the World Health Network Long COVID Expert Advisory Group."
 
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