APPENDIX 111
Memorandum submitted by Mrs D
INQUIRY INTO PRIVACY AND MEDIA INTRUSION
I have received a letter from the Press Complaints
Committee inviting me to comment on how their system works.
I made a complaint to the PCC on behalf of the
Eastern Leicester Primary Care Trust, where I work. This was following
an article in a national newspaper that implied anti-allergy bedding
was available free for asthma patients depending upon which area
you lived in. A patient in our PCT catchment area had enquired
as to when he would be able to obtain this bedding.
The patient contacted us about a month after
the article had been published, and I contacted the editor asking
him to supply details of the PCT involved in the article. I waited
about four weeks, and when he hadn't replied I contacted the PCC.
They initially said that the complaint would
not be investigated as it was outside their time-scale, but when
I explained that the editor's lack of response had contributed
to the delay, they agreed to contact him on my behalf.
The PCC managed to establish that the bedding
had been given out as part of an Industry sponsored trial, and
therefore was not given out by the NHS. I was grateful that the
PCC had managed to get an answer to my query, but I was disappointed,
however, that it was decided it was too late to print a correction
to the article, as I feel that the sort of headline used in this
article only contributes to the negative public image of the NHS
that the media seems to encourage.
Overall, however, I did find the PCC helpful
and their complaints system was easy to access.
23 January 2003
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