Discrimination of mental health patients could benefit from website

Discrimination of mental health patients could benefit from website

By William Smith

A news item on Pulse Daily brings us new of a great website where you can find the best healthcare providers and where you are encouraged to give anonymous feedback on the care you have received.

iWantGreatCare is a free service for all those looking to find the best care for themselves, their family or those they look after.  The site is free to use and it is easy to search for a doctor or dentist by name, specialty or region of the country.   You can read reviews and rating from other patients to see what they think about the care they have received.  It also reviews Nursing Homes in your area.  You can benefit from the advice and experience of other taking the same medicine as you and also find a pharmacy who can look after your needs.

Pulse Daily reports that one of the UK’s largest HIV charities is encouraging patients to anonymously rate named GPs online in a bid to signpost HIV friendly practices and help patients avoid discrimination.  The collaboration sees the Terrence Higgins Trust has sign a landmark deal with the GP ratings site.

The reports tells us that the Terrence Higgins Trust provides services to over 50,000 people a year and is in the first in a series of agreements which iWantGreatCare hopes to sign with charities as it looks to expand the reach of its site.

iWantGreatCare is a site that goes a step further than other similar sites such as NHS Choices as it allows patients to make anonymous comment on individual GPs rather than just the practice from which they operate.  This has proved to be controversial since it launched in 2008. 

In the same Pulse Daily report it states that Garry Brough of the Terrence Higgins Trust told them that patients with HIV were often subjected to discrimination and breaches of confidentiality in primary care and also said that the new deal would allow patients to seek out HIV friendly practices.

As someone who has suffered from a mental health condition in the past, I have experienced discrimination, first hand, when it comes to treating and dealing with a mental health problem.  Through this site perhaps we will be able to see improvements in the discrimination of mental health patients as well as those with HIV.