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Secondly, Do No Harm
Sunday, August 12, 2012 18:01
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It was a long day yesterday. Still no parole answer, and the crazy, stressful juggling that accompanies every payday, recently. So the last thing I needed was for my boss on the gardens to tell me that Healthcare had altered my medical status from Labour 3 (“officially a wreck”) up to Labour 2 (“only slightly knackered”).
Those with long memories, or access to Google, may recall that last December the GP swiftly listed me as Labour 3 on arrival and rescued me from the Carps workshop and into Education. To be told that this had changed, without so much as a cursory examination by someone who knew what a medical school looked like, was both frustrating and annoying. New and laborious gardening duties hove into view, with the prospect of significant pain or a nicking for not working. This had become a Big Deal.
Fair do’s on my boss, who shoved me in the direction of Healthcare to try to sort this out. All afternoon I was up and down to Healthcare, trying in vain to get them to speak to me. Three nurses, a practice manager, and the GP all with their feet up in an otherwise empty building telling me that they were “too busy”. They remained too busy when I reappeared at “treatment time” (shades of Nurse Ratched).
They were still too busy all this morning. They did find the time to talk to several staff about this, but not a second spare to talk to me. And I had only two simple questions – who altered my status without any examination? And on what medical basis?
Instead of dealing with the crap they had unleashed, they have been hiding away, a huddle of selective mutes. That in itself suggests that they feel they may be on thin ice.
I am fed up with being dismissed by nursing staff who view prisoners as an inconvenience. A paperwork blizzard is going to be coming their way, possibly including a writ for misfeasance in public office, unless they sound a swift retreat and begin to act like healthcare staff. With men too afraid to book appointments lest they forget them and get hammered, with men having long standing medications removed, and with men being spoken to like dirt, then it is only reasonable that we prisoners hold these petty tyrants to account.
Ben Gunn is “one of Britain’s best known
prisoners…he constantly questions authority and exposes the futility
of the system” The Times. Pleading guilty to the murder of a friend when
he was 14 years old, Ben has since renounced violence and consistently
fought for the recognition of the inherent dignity of all human beings.
As a result of speaking truth to power, Ben has served far longer than
the recommended 10 years, leading Education Secretary Michael Gove to
argue that Ben “has been punished excessively for a crime committed as a
child”, and Lord Ramsbotham to state that “It is expensive and
unnecessary to keep Ben Gunn in prison”.
2012-08-12 17:58:34
Source: http://prisonerben.blogspot.com/2012/08/secondly-do-no-harm.html
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