It is interesting to note that during the pandemic the NHS would recognise an individual as suffering from a virus even when they reported no symptoms at all. Unfortunately, all too often those reporting actual symptoms are told it is ‘all in their head’ and to go away and stop bothering them.

Stuart Finch records his fight for NHS recognition and appropriate treatment which has lasted over a decade.

Management Summary:
Since 2003, I have made several NHS complaints regarding NHS tactical misdiagnosis due to NHS rationing marginalisation and stealth privitisation of treatment for Varicose veins and Pelvic Venous Congestion and downgrading the treatments as cosmetic which is tactical.

Nice Guidance CG168 has been held back for years and does not scope in the primary root cause

Pelvic Venous Congestion and Vascular midline Compressions.

The Doctors who sit on the Nice Panel actively treat Pelvic venous Congestions in their private sector clinics but will not scope it into Nice Guidance. Department of Health decide the scope and
collaborate with Nice Guidance Panel trying to hold back and discriminate Pelvic Vein and Varicous Veins due to the complex and resourceful nature of the treatments. This is alongside Clinical Commissioning Groups downgrading and superficialising varicose vein treatments as cosmetic and GP referral Guidelines not following Nice Guidance.

Tactical misdiagnosis collaboration between NHS Consultants and Hospitals who cherry pick
and mislead patients so they can save on resources. NHS manipulates patients and ration care which is top-down policy driven.

NHS trusts also collaborated with NHS Primary Care Trusts to mislead my diagnosis so I
could not apply for independent funding requests which takes all of my options for treatment away and
allowed my condition to become dangerous and chronic. The NHS falsified information on my NHS records, manipulated complaint responses and lied to cover up evidence which would support being referred to more specialist centres within the private sector or abroad who can recognise and have experience.

Multiple trusts have manipulated and continued to follow inappropriate care even though they knew the treatment was substandard and at times barbaric but they did not want to commit the resources for me to have a multidiscipline resourceful care or diagnostic tests which are not provided on the NHS.


My problem of not being treated correctly caused me great distress and anguish as I knew my condition was deteriorating from 1996 after vein ligations surgery. Since 2003, when I discovered the reason why, this continued misdiagnosis was happening, I had multiple new referrals second opinions. I made several complaints to the PHSO who contributed to my suffering by not doing a full and correct investigation and not accepting new evidence or even acknowledging communication from me and giving the green light for all the Institutions involved to collaborate and mislead my diagnosis for policy driven rationing and postcode lottery. This was deliberate.


NHS Consultants together with the PHSO continued with lack of integrity to mislead my diagnosis even after several submissions of new evidence based information from very reliable sources from the same
Consultants in the private sector who mislead my diagnosis to support tactical misdiagnosis as psychological in nature. NHS staff and those who adjudicate on complaints have caused me and my young family great distress.

I finally received conclusive evidence which was completely Ignored by the NHS and PHSO
because it supported my diagnosis and contradicted the poor NHS Complaints responses from NHS
Hospitals in England and PHSO.

I was forced to Scotland for major vascular surgery in 2012 which supported my diagnosis but I was
told by the consultant that I needed to get my care continued in the England because again he
couldn’t offer multidiscipline approach as nobody would pay . My care was patchy due to no
collaboration between consultants and when I got back to England I wrote to PHSO and NHS England
and Commissioning Groups because I needed my care continued but nobody would respond. I was
just told my case was historic or there was no remit, so again my condition became dangerous and
life-threatening and my pelvic skin was breaking down as I could not access continued appropriate
care because the NHS IN ENGLAND would not even acknowledge the new evidence-based complaints
about my continued care and tactical misdiagnosis. I was forced into the private sector again and
had £60,000 embolization with the Vascular Interventional Radiologist from UCLH who was trying to
help me.

I have attempted to contact PHSO several times since 2012 but they will not respond and say my case is historic even though I never got a proper investigation and I supplied new critical evidence
which contradicted complaints responses. Coventry Clinical Commissioning Group will not respond
to a formal complaint as they say they are not medically trained and they will not support independent funding requests.


Summing Up:
I took legal action through Erwin Mitchell Solicitors but the Dr who reported on my case lied and would
not contradict his peer’s report that I have no organic problem and my issue was psychological. Again after submitting new evidence from multiple Drs including diagnostic tests and highlighting having major vascular surgery in Scotland I submitted documents which contradicted the report but the Dr never responded and went on the sick and stopped doing medical legal work. So I went to the Legal
Ombudsman with my complaint and they said it was reasonable for my case to be dropped as the
report was unsupportive even though it was full of contradictions and they said they had no remit to
question the report. My case failed so I went to the GMC who said my problem is policy driven and
not a GMC issue. I responded saying if a Dr is misleading a diagnosis for whatever reason it
should be a GMC issue and again PHSO would not respond.


It appears common practice for public bodies to “lose” papers and manipulate information.
Justice will only be seen to be done when this failure is accepted as an admission of guilt if
complainants have evidence to substantiate the claim of wrongdoing.

Relevant Medical History
I had bilateral long saphenous vein ligations in 1998 before rationing started to take place and within a few months of the procedure, the pressure diverted into my pelvic (Pelvic Venous Congestion ) which is the primary route cause of varicose veins and can be treated. But when I went back to the Surgeon
I was told there were not veins in the pelvic and my condition was psychological. I complained and
asked to be referred to a specialist centre but they refused. I complained and my care was dismissed from the NHS hospital back to my GP. I got a second opinion in 2000 at Coventry Hospital with the vascular surgeon when I asked for specific diagnostic tests which he refused and said my condition was psychological. I explained that the NHS was not set up to even try and help me or even treat my condition as it is very specialised and rationing funding obstructs me moving forward and asked would they help me apply for specialist funding but the Hospital refused and continued to say my condition was psychological .

I finally saw a Doctor in 2004 at Birmingham Selly oak who gave me a Doppler study and found a significant collection of veins deep to the crura with low-velocity flow and compressibility but I was told he had no experience and he would sendme to UCLH. When I got there I was told off the record that
my condition was very complex and they could not commit resources to me as nobody would pay for
multidiscipline team approach or expensive diagnostic tests and that they did not have any experience with my condition even though they knew Drs abroad who have an interest in this as it is a multifaceted condition and needs specialist resourceful multidiscipline approach. When I received my clinic summary letter it said my condition was more likely to be psychological and not venous issues and they tried to dismiss me from the clinic. I then managed to get my GP to refer me in 2010 to another doctor at UCLH who agreed to give me a diagnostic test called a Venogram which highlighted Pelvic Venous Congestion but the Urologist at the Hospital overruled the diagnosis with hospital management. I was given an embolization treatment but they could not continue without urology clinic support even though the radiologist who did the venogram and was Director of Imaging, supports pcs as a diagnosis and sits on Nice Guidance Panel and asked if Pelvic venous congestion would be scoped into Nice Guidance cg168 for varicous veins but he was told no by DOH and his opinion was dismissed.

I finally found a Dr in Glasgow who gave me major pelvic vascular ligations and he
said that during the procedure he had not seen so many pelvic varicous veins in his life and said he
understood why I was in such a chronic, debilitating mess. After the surgery I was told that my care needed to be continued in England and that I needed to see a urologist and a vascular interventional radiologist to continue my care but when I wrote to UCLH they would not respond. I even wrote to the PHSO again but they still have not responded to this day. Because my treatment wasn’t continued and the NHS in Engalnd and clinical commissioning group and GP would not support an independent funding request my condition deteriorated even more until my pelvic skin started breaking down and I was forced to sell my home and have £60.000 pounds worth of private sector treatment with the same Director of Imaging at UCLH but in private clinic. 2013 to 2016 the doctor has been treating me and managed to get me seen at the NHS Royal Free but because he could not get specific tests done without multidisciplinary team approach my treatment is patchy and as he doesn’t have the team around him to offer appropriate care.

Conclusion:

I have been deliberately denied specialist funding and treatment due to a combination of Primary Care
Rationing , GP Referral Guidelines down grade and manipulated for varicose veins treatments which without proper diagnostic workup miss the primary route cause ie. pcs compressions.

This is a postcode lottery and stealth privitisation with NHS Hospitals cherry-picking care due to resourcefulness of certain condition. The PHSO Ombudsman have given the green light to this by not investigating and not looking at evidence submitted holding back of Nice Guidance because varicose vein treatments have been marginalised and tactically underfunded for decades. I have been suffering from the age of 16 and cannot wear trousers. I only wear baggy clothes and cannot work and will absorb 1.8 million pounds in benefits over a lifetime due to this treatable condition.