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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

To want MNHQ to get rid of the link to 'I want great care'?

486 replies

sallysparrow157 · 02/09/2011 13:11

It's an awful awful website. It is not moderated or validated. Doctors at times have to do things that patients don't like (ie sectioning someone mentally ill, not prescribing methadone for someone who is still using heroin as some extreme examples but even things like not giving antibiotics for a viral infection or not referring someone to something inappropriate), this doesn't make them bad, in fact it makes them better doctors than someone who will do something they think is wrong just to keep the patients happy. However, anyone who has been annoyed by their doctor can post on this site and write whatever abusive things they like and there is no way for the doctor involved to respond.
It is not kept up to date - there are doctors who have been entered as the wrong speciality, doctors down as still practicing who have retired and doctors who have actually been entered on the site after their own death. Relatives of these doctors have contacted the people who run the site and asked for their details to be removed as it is obviously upsetting to know that anyone who fancies it can write abuse on the internet about your dead father, the people who run the site have not done anything about it.
I am a doctor. I undergo constant monitoring of how I do my job, both the clinical side of things and how I communicate with patients and their families. There is an effective complaints/feedback system so if my patients think I am doing something wrong they have a way of letting me know this so I can improve. So I'm not being precious and not wanting anyone to say horrible things about me. I just think that this website is a good way to spout anonymous hatred online about named professionals, if you are that way inclined, and as it is not updated and contains the details of dead and retired doctors but does not contain the details of many doctors working today (including me and everyone else who works in my department - apparently there are no paediatricians in this city...), it is also completely useless.
I'm very disappointed that mumsnet has chosen to publicise it.

OP posts:
applejelly · 02/09/2011 21:51

I agree with the majority of the above posters - hugely disappointed at this partnership.
There seems to be significant dissatisfaction amongst your members here MNHQ - would you consider suspending the advert and officially asking for our opinions?

landrover · 02/09/2011 22:06

Horrible!!!

BartletForAmerica · 02/09/2011 22:13

I completely agree that YANBU for all the reasons people have said above. What a ridiculous idea! And one that was started by a doctor.

I wasn't that bothered by a possible McDonalds/MN link-up, but this IWGC/MN one has no redeeming features!

DorisIsAPinkDragon · 02/09/2011 22:17

Just to add my voice.

It really is a poorly thought out concept. There is no room for response from Doctors who's reputations are damaged. As they HAVE to abide by confidentiality.

I really would like to see it removed. It is NOTHING like a review in any other section of MN, and it is farcical to suggest it is.

Get rid. really.

Waltons · 02/09/2011 22:20

Bartlet

Relentless Googler that I am, I suggest that interested MNetters Google "Dr Neil Bacon", the founder of the website in question.

Indaba · 02/09/2011 22:21

YANBU

Sidge · 02/09/2011 22:21

It's such a shite website it reports doctors in my area as working at a hospital which is now closed Hmm

Alibabaandthe80nappies · 02/09/2011 22:24

So it was set up in 2008, and 3 years later it is hardly a roaring success.

Tbh MNHQ, I'm surprised that you want to be associated with something so clearly unsuccessful.

notlettingthefearshow · 02/09/2011 22:25

I agree - terrible idea. People tend to want to write anonymously about things they are unhappy with, so the comments are likely to be negative.

learningtofly · 02/09/2011 22:26

Whilst I wouldn't disagree with the concept as such I, however, do disagree with the fact it is totally subjective and not in any way based on fact.

Doctors are answerable to the GMC and not public opinion. You don't like a particular doctor? Fine. Find other.

InnocentRedhead · 02/09/2011 22:28

This is probably the pedant in me I am watching this thread with great interest but it unnerves me that a word in the advert is spelt wrong.

specialty no it's SPECIALITY!

TheArmadillo · 02/09/2011 22:29

Add my voices to the others that saying that a doctor can respond is pointless as they can't break confidentiality so can't really do anything.

Doctors have already reported information that is out of date or incorrect and so far are getting no response and the information is not being corrected or taken down so to say 'oh they'll act on it if you tell them' is pointless as clearly they are not doing that.

It's different to writing reviews of holidays or products because (as much as I use them myself) this stuff actually makes a real difference. It doesn't really make a difference whether you buy x pushchair or y pushchair. It doesn't make a great deal of difference if you buy from x company or y company in the great scheme of things. This stuff does matter and does make a difference.

Plus the NHS already provides a scheme where you can comment on these things and a system for complaints so what you are essentially adding is a version of this that is not properly checked out, moderated, updated and is left completely open to abuse.

Well done - an inferior system that basically doesn't work and is potentially damaging about something that is actually important. Be proud of yourself mumsnet - that is what you have aligned yourself to.

And considering how big a deal you made over advertising macdonalds on site, its nice that you didn't even bother to inform mners that you were creating a partnership wtih this organisation Hmm

Alibabaandthe80nappies · 02/09/2011 22:32

Innocent - I hate to break it to you, but it is a different word Grin

DiazePam · 02/09/2011 22:39

I'm a GP. I think this site is unspeakably awful. I'm not on it now, but I was 3 years ago when this dreadful website started. I was listed at a surgery where I had not worked for several years. I politely requested the website to remove my details, I met with a point blank refusal and it took a complaint to the information commisioners office to get me removed.

They say they have robust systems to remove malicious reviews, but it's not those that bother me, it's people writing negative reviews about me because I've done something they don't like but that is entirely the correct thing to do. I work in a service with lots of drug and alcohol users. They want me to prescribe everything under the sun, have a miracle cure to stop them drinking NOW etc. When I say no, I can't do these things, they often get upset. But that doesn't make me a bad doctor. How can I respond? If I write and say 'actually I didn't give you valium because you are addicted to it and have been caught selling it to other patients in our car park' then quite rightly I'd be up in front of the GMC. Is this site, or mumsnet, going to pay my wages for the next 20 years till I retire if I get get struck off for responding to something on this site? No, didn't think so.

Hardly fair, is it.

Besides which, the database is rubbish. I checked my local area and there is at least one doctor who died, over a year ago, on there. Also several who have retired several years ago or don't even work in the uk any more.

Mumsnet, please don't be taken in by this. It will drag you down. Please break your association with this dreadful site!

InnocentRedhead · 02/09/2011 22:42

Now i feel dumb. It was how i say it in my mind haha! I was trying to say it like speciality just with the missing letter.

Not specialty as in 'Lasagne is my specialty'

Damn Biscuit

fluffywhitekittens · 02/09/2011 22:54

Yanbu

TiggyD · 02/09/2011 23:18

MNHQ is being very unreasonable.

BTW, I just left feedback for Dr Adolf Hitler the genetics specialist at Great Ormond Street. What could possibly go wrong with that site? Hmm

JjandtheBeanlovesUnicorns · 02/09/2011 23:23

YANBU it makes me feel very uneasy

pumpupthevolume · 02/09/2011 23:29

Tiggy: Is this the same Dr Adolf Hitler I saw a few years ago when he was in fertility at St Barts?

Bingbangbong · 02/09/2011 23:31

Just registering my distaste for the partnership. Come on MNHQ, this isn't like you.

TiggyD · 02/09/2011 23:32

Could be Pump. Though I think his fertility knowledge is only half what it should be.

onetwothreefourfive · 02/09/2011 23:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

midnightservant · 02/09/2011 23:36

Rubbish so-called database.

Can't find my GP or psychiatrist. And why should I add two more doctors for them.

Terrible idea. I am active in mental health service user involvement and one of our main issues is how to get frank feedback while preserving the anonymity of the feedback giver, and ensuring the feedback giver is bona fide.

MinimallyNarkyPuffin · 02/09/2011 23:41

It's just vile. I get pissy about more things than I should, but this site really shocked and upset me when I saw it. I kept my mouth shut about it as I didn't want to give it the oxygen of publicity. I didn't rant. That's how much it upset me.

InnocentRedhead · 02/09/2011 23:41

Oh i forgot to say YANBU for wanting the partnership stopped. The general consensus here seems to suggest that we aren't happy with it. Yet we are only a small cross section if the MN community.

IMO Mumsnet's adverts should be aimed at the target audience, which is parents. I agree that the general idea of what the website provides is a good idea, helping families choose their healthcare but how far does the website actually provide what it sets out to do? And it seems with what everyone is saying on here, that it doesn't provide this. Why continue to provide this advert? If there was a flock of complaints to the ASA or OFCOM about something advertised on TV or in adverts then it would be pulled if the grounds of complaint were grounded, this should be the case.

sallysparrow you nail it in everything you are saying in the OP and every point made after this by most posters seems to be the same.

People are right, you can review a product and just think 'ah, i will buy something else'. Yet if you are referred to a doctor, end up finding them on iWantgreatcare and the reviews aren't what you want, you cannot ask to be re-referred elsewhere easily without grounds for complaint except you don't like what you have read. Diazepam you hit the nail on the head 'They say they have robust systems to remove malicious reviews, but it's not those that bother me, it's people writing negative reviews about me because I've done something they don't like but that is entirely the correct thing to do.'