The Hon
Barry O’Farrell
Premier of
NSW
Level 40,
Governor Macquarie Tower
1 Farrer
Place
Sydney,
NSW 2000 4th
Sept. 2012
Dear Premier
I have written to you several times. Whilst I have
not received a response to any of my letters it does seem, from the actions of
others further down the NSW Health bureaucratic chain, that the contents of my
letters have been noted by your office. Indeed, for some time it seemed as
though Ms H was at last receiving the treatment she has needed this past decade
and which has been denied her as a result of the malicious incompetence of
doctors such as Dennis Ladd and the bureaucratic indifference of doctors such
as Michael Patton. However, it is not about Ms H’ past history with NSW Health
that I am writing this time. I am writing about a rumour I have heard which may
or may not be correct. If it is not correct no harm will come from my placing
this letter on file. If the rumour is correct this letter may well become
evidence in a future court case.
I have been, to all intents and purposes, Ms H’ ‘dad’
this past 25 years. Ms H refers to me as her ‘father’ or her ‘dad’. I am also
Ms H’ Primary Carer – a fact that has been known to NSW Health for many years
now. Despite my being Ms H’ Primary Carer it is rare indeed that I am treated
as such by NSW Health – a department in your government which, as a matter of
course, breaches its own guidelines vis a vis the rights of Carers with what
can best be described as contempt. So, it came as no surprise, when Ms H
entered Manly East Wing 10 or so days ago as a voluntary patient, that no-one
from NSW Health bothered to notify me of her presence or to provide me with any
information at all regarding her well-being. As it happens my own life has
been, this past few weeks, filled with complications that have made it
difficult for me to pay as much attention to Ms H as I normally do. This
happens from time to time.
Last night the police came to my home at Palm Beach
looking for Ms H. She was not with me but, it seems, the police believed that
she was because my telephone (which used to belong to Ms H) indicated that she
was. It seems, and here I am not 100% sure of my facts, that Ms H had, in her
role as a voluntary patient, effectively absconded from manly East Wing. This
is not unusual. It has happened before. However, upon speaking with Ms H’ former
defacto, Paul McCall, currently residing with Ms H, I was told the following. I
cannot attest to its truth or accuracy but it is, for reasons that will soon
become apparent, important that I place this letter on record.
Mr McCall told me that the reason why Ms H had
absconded was that she had been told by someone in Manly East Wing that she was
to be scheduled. This raises all sorts of questions – the first of which is:
Why was I not, as her Primary Carer, informed of this? According to Mr McCall
Ms H had also told him that someone (I don’t know who) within Many East Wing,
had told her that part of the process of her being scheduled would involve her
signing over the rights to an inheritance she has recently come into, to the
NSW state government. I presume this means that the NSW government would, in
the process, make Ms H a ward of the state and take control of her finances.
If this rumour is true, let me place the following on
record. Ms H is aware that she suffers from bouts of mental illness. During
these bouts she is not (as she would be the first to admit) in a position to
make sound rational judgements about how she spends whatever money she has. For
this reason she asked me some months ago, when she became aware that she was
going to inherit money and other assets, if I would become her legal guardian.
This I agreed to. She and I went to Manly Court to get some advice and to
acquire the appropriate forms. Whilst these have been filled out, they have not
been lodged. There seemed to be no urgency to do so and Ms H’ relatively recent
serious back operation and my being overseas has resulted in the forms not
being lodged. Ms H and I have talked about lodging them several times but, for
one reason or another, we have not got around to it. So, it comes as something
of a shock, to both Ms H and myself, if the rumour is true, that NSW Health has
a plan to take on the role of ‘legal guardian’ or whatever the appropriate
legal expression may be to describe the person or entity who takes control of
another person’s finances.
Again I have to ask, if this rumour is true, why
no-one from NSW Health has thought to mention it to me as Ms H’ Primary Care,
to discuss it with me!?
It may be that Paul Mc Call has misunderstood what Ms
H told him. It may also be that Ms H has misunderstood what she has been told
or what she thinks she had been told by someone within Manly East Wing.
However, if Ms H has not misunderstood or misheard and if Mr McCall’s account
of his recent conversation with Ms H is accurate, please be aware that any
attempt by NSW Health to take control of her finances will be vigorously
defended by Ms H and myself.
There is another element to this that is relevant.
Many East Wing’s response to Ms H’ bouts of mental illness (and the same is
true for MHICU) is to pump her full of drugs to calm her down. Ms H refers to
this as being tied up in a chemical straight-jacket. Whilst in this
over-medicated state Ms H cannot think straight, cannot speak properly and is
in no position to make rational
decisions about anything. I have before likened this state to Ms H being a
‘zombie’. If, in this ‘zombie’ state, Ms H were to be paraded before a
Magistrate he could be forgiven for arriving at the conclusion that she was in
need of being ‘sectioned’ and, perhaps, by whatever legal means are at the
Magistrate’s disposal, taking control of her own estate out of her hands. I
trust, despite NSW Health’s contempt for me as Ms H’ Primary Carer, that I will
be informed of any attempts that NSW Health might make to either schedule her
or to take control of her finances.
I trust that NSW Health is not engaged in a process
whereby it schedules Ms H and takes control of her finances but if it is, if
the rumour is based in fact, not only will Ms H and I vigorously argue against
it, but we will point out in the most public of forums how it is that we got to
the point where such a thing could happen.
I began, in a blog a few months ago, to give an
account of what a mess NSW Health is – telling Ms H story in chronological
sequence. I will, as soon as I have the time, continue with my blog and hope
that at some point a mainstream journalist will pick up on it as an example of
just how hopeless MSW Health is. In the meantime this letter can go on file, to
be produced in court if Ms H needs to take an action against MSW Health in
order to have returned to her, with my assistance as her legal guardian, her
right to control her own finances and not have them controlled by a government
body that has failed, miserably, this past couple of decades, to provide her
with any assistance appropriate to the realities of her mental illness.
best wishes
James Ricketson
