A recent article in the media:-
“Powerful watchdog!!” Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha! “Will be able to rate and compare various facilities!!” Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha!
When it comes to things like this this federal government in general and Ken Wyatt in particular couldn’t organise a chook raffle.
If it’s serious, the Federal Government could start by making AHPRA, it’s own “Health Practitioner Regulation Agency” more “powerful” – we’ve always found it to be hopeless.
So are any details of this new powerful watchdog available? We considered emailing Mr Wyatt for details, even though in the past, when we’ve emailed him, as we’ve done on 2 or 3 occasions, all we’ve got back is an automated response along the lines of, “Oh dear, we’re getting so many emails, it may be a while before we can back to you. And, of course, we’ve always got to give priority to responding to correspondence from our own constituents, over responding to correspondence from anyone else,” and that’s all we’ve ever got from him, nothing more! But when we went to Parliament’s website, we found that Mr Wyatt has made it even more cumbersome to try to deal with him than it used to be – he doesn’t have an ordinary email address, just an email form that fills more than two pages.
To be fair, if any of our readers has ever bothered to email him, and got a half decent response , we’d be more than happy to publicise it, if the details could be sent to us. Just one? Anyone?
Fortunately, and we of our generations are so lucky in this respect, modern technology has come along to help us.
If we are considering entering an aged care facility, or dealing with one in any way, firstly see if they have an ordinary email address, and if they haven’t, keep looking. Ordinary email addresses are so much more efficient and effective to use in correspondence, that we immediately know that people and organisations who haven’t got one, aren’t really into being upfront and honest.
Above all, avoid those who try to get us to rely on phone conversations. It’s so much better to have things in writing, to avoid misunderstandings etc. And besides, if you have emails on things, you can use them to take it up with others, like the more senior people in organisations etc. if you’ve found what you’ve been told not very satisfying – in a way which is just not possible with things you have been told in phone conversations.
It’s simple. Only deal with those who have ordinary email addresses, and who respond the best to emails sent to them. It’s something we’ve been doing for a while, and we’ve found that in at least 19 times out of 20, it works.
And as more of us, the people, start adopting this approach – the whole world will change. Those who are not upfront and honest when issues arise will start not being around – perhaps even politicians!
