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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care. Today’s tip is about transparency in intensive care and why it’s important and how you can achieve it. So, when I talk about transparency, it means your question should be answered. So, for example, if clients work with us, one to one, then we get on the phone with the doctors and nurses directly. We ask questions directly, or we set up our clients with the right questions to ask because simply the biggest challenge for families in intensive care is simply that they don’t know what they don’t know. They don’t know what to look for, they don’t know what questions to ask, they don’t know their rights, and they don’t know how to manage doctors and nurses in intensive care.

So, that is your first obvious sign of how transparent the hospital is, how willing they are to share information, when you’re simply asking questions. And once you work with us, you are simply asking the right questions.

Now, next, this is more of an observation in the UK when we work with our clients in the UK. And I’ll come to our other clients in a minute. But in the UK for example, the NHS is anything but transparent. They’re making it really hard to get information. It takes ages to get access to medical records, even though it’s a right for families, not a privilege. It’s a right to get access to medical records. So your question should be, what is it they have to hide? It should make you highly suspicious, if they have nothing to hide, they would just release the medical records and say, “Yup there, it’s all for you”, and the healthcare needs to be transparent. There can’t be secrecy around it and especially that NHS is trying to become more and more secretive.

It’s a communist health system really, and it’s trying to ration healthcare. It also looks like it’s an attempt to control the population. Who’s getting treatment? Who can live? Who can die? It’s just appalling from what we are observing with our clients in the UK. Some hospitals are better than others, but the bottom line is this, it takes ages to get access to medical records. They’re issuing DNRs (Do Not Resuscitate) left, right, and center without consulting clients. It’s just absolutely atrocious in what we are observing with the NHS in the UK in particular.

And again, I can only say it’s a communist healthcare system without openness, without transparency, and really trying to control the population. That’s what it looks like anyway. With our clients in the U.S. and in Australia, it also can take some time. A very long time to get access to medical records. And again, the question is, what is it they have to hide? What is it that you can’t see? Question to the hospitals here, if you’re watching this and, you’re employed by a hospital or you’re a hospital executive, what is it you have to hide? What is it that you can’t show your patients? What is it that you can’t partner with your consumers? It’s a very important question to ask.

And again, healthcare needs to be transparent. It’s a right, not a privilege to have access to the medical records. It’s a right, not a privilege to ask, to get answers to the right questions. And if there are delays or attempts to delay, makes you wonder what is it they have to hide? Are you hiding someone? Are you hiding treatment options that you don’t want to share with families, but we can give a second opinion here and we can educate our clients on treatment options. So there is no point in hiding because we’ll find out anyway just by understanding the situation.

So that is my quick tip for today.

If you have a loved one in intensive care, go to intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website, or simply send us an email to [email protected].

Also, have a look at our membership for families in intensive care at intensivecaresupport.org. They have access to me and my team 24-hours a day in a membership area and via email, and we answer all questions, intensive care and Intensive Care at Home – related.

Also, if you need a medical record review, please contact us as well. We help you review or we review medical records in real time. And we also help you get access to medical records if you are struggling, just as I described it a minute ago, we know tools of the trade and we can help you with getting access to medical records quicker. We also review medical records after intensive care, but it is so much better and so much more efficient for you and for getting better outcomes if we can review them while your loved one is in intensive care.

Now, like the video, subscribe to my YouTube channel  for regular updates for families in intensive care and Intensive Care at Home. Click the notification bell, share the video with your friends and families, and let me know what you think about the video. Leave your comments and questions below, and let me know what you want to see next.

Thanks for watching.

This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com, and I’ll talk to you in a few days. Take care.