When Complaining Becomes a Problem: My Experience on Jade Ward

I am writing this because I believe people deserve to know what it can feel like to be a patient on a psychiatric ward when you raise concerns about the way you are being treated.

I am currently detained on Jade Ward in a North London facility. During my time here, I have repeatedly experienced what I consider to be dismissive, intimidating and inconsistent treatment from members of staff. What concerns me most is not one isolated incident, but what I believe has become a pattern: contradictory information, having to repeatedly ask different members of staff for basic things, and feeling that my decision to complain about staff has subsequently been used against me.

I want to tell the story publicly because I believe patients should be able to complain without being punished for doing so.

It started with a complaint

I previously made a formal complaint to management concerning the conduct of a member of staff.

During a later interaction, another member of staff confronted me about that complaint and questioned me about what I had written concerning a different member of staff.

I attempted to explain why I had complained.

According to my account of the incident, the member of staff became increasingly angry, raised his voice and told me that I was not allowed to complain to management about the other member of staff.

That statement deeply concerned me.

A patient should not have to wonder whether making a complaint will make their situation on the ward worse.

I was not looking for an argument. I was simply trying to explain my concerns.

Then came the issue of nicotine

I am heavily nicotine dependent.

Before being admitted to this facility, I was smoking approximately 40 cigarettes a day, in addition to cigarillos.

The ward provides ELFBAR vape products to patients who use nicotine. I have therefore been using these products while I have been detained here.

I am not pretending that I am trying to quit nicotine. I am not.

My complaint is about consistency, transparency and how I am being treated.

On several occasions, I have asked staff for a refill and been told that there were no refills available.

Yet subsequently, another member of staff has provided me with refills.

On one occasion, after being told that there were none available, I ended up asking different members of staff until eventually someone provided me with a pack.

That leaves me in an absurd position.

I am a detained patient, dependent on the ward for access to the nicotine products that are provided here, yet I feel that I have to walk around asking one member of staff after another until I find someone who will actually provide me with what I have been told is unavailable.

Why should a patient have to do this?

Why can't the staff simply give patients the same information?

Why can't there be a clear and consistent policy?

And why should a patient's access to something routinely provided on the ward depend on which member of staff happens to be standing behind the desk?

The statement that changed everything

What concerns me most is what happened after I complained.

The member of staff involved told me, in substance and according to my account of the conversation, that he would never give me another vape refill.

This was said in the context of my previous complaint.

I therefore became concerned that my complaint had consequences for how I was being treated.

I want to be absolutely clear:

I believe I have the right to complain about my care.

Making a complaint should not mean that I lose access to services, support or items that are otherwise available to patients.

It should not result in intimidation.

It should not result in retaliation.

And it certainly should not result in a staff member telling a patient that they are no longer going to provide something because that patient complained.

CQC Regulation 16

This is particularly important because CQC Regulation 16 — Receiving and acting on complaints exists precisely so that people receiving regulated care can raise concerns.

My understanding is that complaints should be handled appropriately and that people should not be disadvantaged simply because they have complained.

That is why the situation I experienced concerns me so deeply.

If a member of staff tells a patient that they cannot complain to management, and subsequently tells that same patient that they will no longer receive something provided to patients after the patient has complained, then this raises a serious question about whether the spirit — and potentially the requirements — of the complaints regulations are being respected.

I am not asking the public to simply take my word for it.

I am asking the relevant organisation and regulators to look at the evidence.

There are cameras

The incidents I have described did not happen in some isolated location without witnesses or records.

The facility operates its own CCTV/security camera system throughout the building.

I believe the relevant interactions were captured by the facility's own surveillance system, including the area outside the nurses' station.

The incident on 8 September at approximately 23:26 and the subsequent interaction on 9 September at approximately 07:10 should therefore be capable of being investigated against objective evidence.

I have specifically requested that the relevant footage be preserved and reviewed.

The recordings can potentially show what happened, how the conversations developed, and the manner in which I was spoken to.

I want the facts to be established from evidence rather than simply reduced to one patient's word against one member of staff's word.

I am tired of having to fight for basic things

This is perhaps the most exhausting part of the entire experience.

I am tired of having to argue with staff over basic matters.

I am tired of receiving contradictory answers.

I am tired of having to ask one person, then another, then another.

I am tired of feeling that I have to find the "right" member of staff before I can get something that I have previously been told is available.

And I am tired of feeling that complaining about staff behaviour can somehow be turned against me.

A patient should not have to become an investigator simply to obtain a consistent answer.

I was even questioned about my finances

There was another incident that happened today which left me equally confused.

A doctor came into my room and began asking me about my financial situation.

I asked why he was asking about my finances and told him that I did not believe my personal financial circumstances were something he had anything to do with.

After I said this, he left my room.

There were no further questions.

I am not saying that there can never be a legitimate clinical reason for asking a patient about their circumstances.

But if information about my finances is being collected, I believe I am entitled to understand why it is relevant, what it is being used for, who will have access to it, and what the lawful basis for processing that personal information is.

Those are reasonable questions, particularly when patients are detained and have limited control over their circumstances.

I am not asking for special treatment

This is important.

I am not asking to receive more than everyone else.

I am asking to be treated fairly, consistently and transparently.

If there is a policy limiting the number of vape pods a patient can receive, then tell me.

If there is a clinical reason why my supply is being restricted, explain it to me.

If a senior clinician has made a decision, tell me who made it and on what basis.

If a member of staff does not have the authority to make an individual decision to permanently deny me refills, then that should also be made clear.

What I cannot accept is being given different answers by different members of staff while being told that I cannot complain about it.

I also want to leave

I have wanted to leave this facility since the beginning of my admission.

I do not believe that I should remain detained here and I have repeatedly wanted to discuss my discharge and legal status with the appropriate medical professionals.

I want to speak directly with the doctors responsible for my care about the legal and clinical basis for my continued detention.

I want clear answers.

Not arguments.

Not intimidation.

Not contradictory explanations.

And not a situation where I have to repeatedly chase individual members of staff to get basic information.

This is bigger than a vape

Some people reading this may think:

"He's complaining about vape pods."

That's not what this is about.

The vape is simply where the problem became visible.

The real issue is power and accountability.

When you are detained inside an institution, you cannot simply walk out when you disagree with someone.

You depend on staff for many aspects of your daily life.

That creates an enormous imbalance of power.

Because of that imbalance, staff conduct matters.

A patient must be able to say:

"I believe you treated me unfairly."

without fearing:

"Now you are going to make things harder for me."

That is why complaints procedures exist.

I want the evidence examined

I have documented these incidents.

I have submitted complaints.

I have requested that the relevant CCTV footage be preserved.

I have asked management to investigate.

I have asked for the applicable policies to be explained.

I have asked why different staff members appear to give me different information.

And I have asked whether the decision to restrict my vape refills was actually authorised by the appropriate clinical or managerial authority.

I am not asking for someone to be punished simply because I am angry.

I am asking for accountability.

If I am wrong, then investigate the evidence and tell me that I am wrong.

If I have misunderstood something, explain it.

If there is a legitimate clinical or policy reason for what has happened, show me the policy and explain the decision.

But if the evidence demonstrates that I was intimidated for complaining, or that my access to nicotine products was deliberately restricted because I complained, then that needs to be acknowledged and addressed.

I will continue to speak

I refuse to believe that being a patient means surrendering my right to question how I am treated.

I refuse to believe that making a complaint makes me a difficult patient.

And I refuse to accept that a patient should have to remain silent simply because staff have more institutional power than the person complaining.

I am asking for dignity.

I am asking for consistency.

I am asking for transparency.

And above all, I am asking for the rules that exist to protect patients to actually mean something when a patient needs them.

If an organisation has policies designed to protect patients, those policies should protect patients even when the patient is complaining about the organisation's own staff.

That is the standard I believe every patient should be entitled to expect.

And that is why I am making my experience public.

Because patients should not have to be afraid to speak.