As I inch at a snails pace towards the end game, I reflect a bit on the constant question I am asked by friends and colleagues.
When will it be closure and what will it take?
I used to group Truth and Justice together, but have come to realize that they are distinctly different. The end game is ultimately a measure of justice. Justice means different things to different people. To some, justice is sufficient with acknowledgement and remorseful apology, to others, prosecution and incarceration. We each have own own views and tolerance levels, each driven by our own personal make ups. Neither is wrong nor right. Justice is personal and from it, we are able to heal.
Truth though, is a different animal.
There is no tolerance level or personal opinion. Truth stands on its own. There is no margin or variance to it. It is clinical and sterile.Without truth there can be no true justice and healing is prevented, leaving a permanent wound to the soul.
Peace is born of truth. Without truth, the dead are condemned to eternal restlessness, and the living, a lifetime of mental anguish.
Without truth, there is no closure. And therein lies my answer.
I will not stop until truth is laid bare. From truth I can wind down, have a measure of closure, and begin a process of healing while justice is delivered.
Peace from Truth
Healing from Justice
Ashley Chaplin
4.7.21
phsothetruestory 
I would urge anyone who had bad experiences with PHSO or any such organizations, to write a Google review and casually mention Della Reynolds (but do not post any links). This would probably lead to this site being viewed a lot more. I am not internet savvy and am old school, but I posted a Google review about my council, and in four weeks I had hundreds of views, which was quite surprising. And I don’t think my review is particularly special, just a longer and more detailed than most. My council will love this. Do not write the review on a text document and then copy and paste it on Google reviews: it will not be published. To understand this has costed me hours. Maybe my advice is ridiculously basic, I don’t know, but now that my review is getting plenty of exposure, I will capitalize on this and write as many devastating reviews as possible about various organizations. PHSO will probably be next in line for me, as I now have the ICE decision about one of my complaints.
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For us as a family, it’s not as much about truth or justice, & more about closure. Five years on we’ve moved on. Yet we can’t simply forgive or forget (& this applies to both the three NHS trusts we had the misfortune to have direct contact with as well as to the PHSO – a body we perceived to be an independent adjudicator for NHS related complaints) but we still need to know someone (just one person at least) listened & cared about the personal injustice and distress we have suffered as a direct result of the NHS failings, professional arrogance, prejudice, & purposeful/collusive cover ups which (put simply) would have easily been exposed if PHSO clinical advisors had examined the clinical evidence in NHS records & applied the most relevant clinical standards.
They didn’t (& TBF the PHSO acknowledge this) as there was PHSO fault in the original phso investigation.
Do we feel better? No.
Can the phso injustice be rectified? No.
Which begs the question why a new phso investigation is underway.
Phso could have quashed the deeply flawed & offensive January 2019 report but the ombudsman chose not to do so.
What does this really say?
We’re under no illusions. The PHSO report was flawed but we don’t matter.
So, what’s the solution?
Nothing can ever compensate for the phso gaslighting, nhs victimisation & the interagency reputational damage we endured.
Will the nhs apologise? No.
Do we want compensation? No.
Are we simply asking for others not to suffer as we did? Yes.
Is this unreasonable? No.
Will this happen? No.
Why? Because on our experience it is evident that NHS lies & false paper trails exist for a reason.
Not because they’re true but because they powerfully demonstrate the extent to which ordinary people can be controlled by officials.
We’re lucky 🍀
We’re not dependent on ‘the system’.
But, ironically we genuinely believe the NHS system is necessary to support & protect vulnerable people irrespective of whether they can afford to pay privately for healthcare.
It would be lovely if we had a NHS that we could all trust. But in our family experience, we don’t.
Arguably worse still, it’d be lovely if we had a NHS adjudicator we could trust. Before we submitted our 2016/17 complaint we honestly thought we did.
We’re a fair minded family. We’re still going through the PHSO review process so ATM we cannot make a definitive evidence based decision regarding the role or public value of the PHSO.
But based on our personal (2016-2019) experience of a (deeply flawed) PHSO investigation we’re not holding our breath regarding the outcome of the PHSO 2021 reinvestigation of our complaint.
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For us as a family, it’s not as much about truth or justice, & more about closure. Five years on we’ve moved on. We can’t forgive or forget (& this applies to both the NHS trusts we had the misfortune to have direct contact with as well as to the phso – a body we perceived to be an independent adjudicator for NHS related complaints) but we still need to know someone (one person at least) listened & cared about the personal injustice we suffered as a result of NHS failings, professional arrogance, prejudice, & purposeful/collusive cover ups.
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Spot on Ashley. Ashley’s observation is for me fact!
“It’s the truth that sets us free.”!
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Absolutely. And it’s so hard to find.
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Bravo to Ashley Chaplin. What a profound observation that sums up the hurdles and obstacles with any Battle for Candour.
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