Negative Reply To My Complaint To PALS

On Weds 27^th May 2026, after two months and having to send them a reminder, I finally received a reply to my complaint regarding three separate incidents involving Royal Preston Hospital’s consultant Mr Khan. The reply is very dismissive of my concerns and allegations and puts me personally in a very negative light, accusing me of being abusive and insinuating (without the slightest shred of direct accusation) of racism as if that somehow motivated my disagreements with Mr Khan.

One Of My Stoma Bags

My three concerns were that the day after my Admission (not the day of admission as claimed in the reply), I was approached by medics (not including Mr Khan) who told me that my extreme vomiting condition was due to my larger of two hernias was strangling my stoma and blocking it. They were discussing immediate surgery with me which would require my consent. I was saddened by this as it would mean a long hospital stay and post-op recovery that would ruin multiple plans I had for the coming weeks including the staging of a play I wrote potentially being cancelled. As health came first, I was willing and literally about to sign the consent form. No alternatives to the surgery were offered, including what was about to happen. Without some kind of treatment my life expectancy would be very short. Mr Khan suddenly arrived and interrupted the discussion and the chaps with consent form and pen stepped back as Mr Khan examined the hernia and colostomy stoma area. I thought he was just looking at what he was personally likely to be operating on within the hour. He started pushing and prodding the hernia mound and the massage got more intense. I wondered what he was feeling for. He jokingly told me I must hate him for the discomfort of this. I didn’t hate it. I was just confused by what the aim of the exercise was, because he offered zero explanation of what he was doing or what outcome he had in mind from it. Finally he stopped and told me that the hernia and stoma had untangled. The other medics immediately went away. At no point before or after his activity did Mr Khan explain what his surgery-bi-passing procedure was aimed at or what told him that he had been successful. My feelings were torn, but at that point what I mainly saw was hope that my various plans including my stage show might still go ahead after all. Only later did I start to wonder why the alternative to surgery wasn’t discussed with me even by the other doctors, and not even by Mr Khan, and why my consent for what he was planning to attempt was not sought as my consent for the surgery was. He just did it. I also wondered if it had really worked. My stomach still felt awkward and uncomfortable. He told me to just push hard on the stoma myself if I felt it blocking up again. I told him I wouldn’t do that as I’d have no idea if I was doing it right or not.

In the days and weeks after the massage, I grew increasingly worried that my hernia and stoma might lock again. Whenever my stomach aches or the stoma slows down I fear it might be relapsing. Not knowing just what Mr Khan did to me, I looked online for what non-surgical solutions exist regarding dealing with blocked stomas. I found very little, and found no one on stoma support discussions who had received any similar treatment. Many official sites cite surgery as the only option there is.

The PALS reply to this part of my complaint reads ”Mr Khan Upper GI & colorectal Consultant has explained that he examined you along with Mr Haq, Urology Consultant his surgical colleague, on admission, we managed to reduce your hernia, thus avoiding a major surgical procedure. You were very thankful for managing to reduce the hernia and were happy with the plan explained to you.”

1/. It was the day after admission, after finally being given a bed in the early hours of the morning, despite getting to A & E by 5pm the previous day (my arrival there was what I consider my admission time). I was not prodded on my day of admission. 2/.  “we managed to reduce your hernia.“ Who is we? Mr Haq never touched me or commented at all on the procedure which was waged exclusively by Mr Khan. 3/. ‘reduced the hernia’. Nothing was ‘reduced’. The hernia is as big as it ever was. Mr Khan appears to have separated the hernia/stoma tangle, temporarily. He says himself that they could re-entangle. His ‘laying on of hands’ activity reduced nothing. 4/. I “were happy with the plan explained to you.” Nothing was, or still has been remotely explained to me. I was not happy (or even asked if I was happy), as I had no idea what had gone on, or if the procedure was successful or not. I was at best relieved by the prospect that my plans for late March and into April now had a hope of going ahead after all. That is not happiness. Even now, two months after Mr Khan mauled my guts around hoping for the best, I am in constant dread of a relapse.

Onto Concern Two.

I was told by Mr Khan immediately after his ‘massage’ that I was to be put on light foods like liquid soups, yoghurts and soft ice cream. If I didn’t vomit those, I’d be given more solid foods later in the day. An ice cream was given to me right away, and I was not left vomiting so I expected to get more next meal but no food came my way on the food issue to the ward I was put on. I told the staff what Mr Khan had told me was to happen but found that he had not informed the staff of any of this so they felt (rightly) unable to give me any food at all. Their last instruction was that I was a nil by mouth apart from water’ which they rightly adhered to. I had to wait until the next day’s ward round to inform Mr Khan of the situation, which he immediately blamed on the staff, claiming that he had told them to feed me and not taking responsibility for making sure that his wishes for me were fully shared with them or followed up on. He set the meal-deal up again and told me quite explicitly that if I coped with the food I would now get and the next morning’s breakfast I could be discharged and go home.

This quite explicit promise was not kept. I am stupid in that when someone with the authoritative voice of a senior consultant tells me specific steps are being implemented to feed me and later discharge me, I naively believe what has been said will be put into practice. It becomes a huge betrayal of my hopes and expectations when that quite explicit promise (no maybe, or I’ll try, or I can’t promise but possibly about it, just if you eat OK, you may be able to go home), does not manifest when the conditions are met, I have every right to feel aggravated, frustrated and that my trust has been betrayed. It makes me question and doubt everything else the promise maker has said to me too. Mr Khan told me quite specifically what was going to happen, I believed him like an idiot, and then it did not happen.

When Mr Khan came to my bed on his routine rounds I pointed this out to him and he immediately denied responsibility, blaming staff for not following his instructions. Were such instructions given? Verbally or in writing (presumably electronic).

This section of my complaint is completely 100% ignored in Paul Miller’s reply as the PALS representative.

Full food was now finally given, again, with a promise that successful consumption of it by me without vomiting would lead to my discharge after breakfast the next day, the 18th March.

The doctor’s rounds are generally early in the morning but can be delayed. On the 18^th, about the time he was expected, Mr Khan did pop his head into the ward and silently looked around from the doorway without walking through it. He made direct eye contact with me. Neither of us said anything to the other and he went away from the ward doorway as silently as he arrived. I assumed that he would be seeing patients on other wards and that he would visit me and the others on the unit housing me soon. As stated below, he didn’t return until 2pm, but that is not actually part of my complaint. Despite that. Paul Miller writes that:

“On the 18^th March 2026, as per the documentation on your electronic file, you were very abusive to Mr Khan for coming late on the ward rounds at 14.00 hours. Mr Khan, apologised to you for being late since he was operating in the theatre, and late ward rounds are not unusual in the overwhelming surgical situation. However, you even then did not stop and continued to abuse Mr Khan in front of all other patients and staff.”

So much flat out misinformation here. 2/. I didn’t raise concerns about the time Mr Khan arrived. I did explicitly point out that on his 2pm arrival, Mr Khan saw the patient to my right, then walked right past my bed, completely ignoring me, to see the patient to my immediate left. It was impossible not to see my bed and me in it from the route he took. I was deliberately being boycotted. I caught the attention of one of the students, some of who looked confused by him not coming to my bedside too. They were following Mr Khan round observing his rounds. I spoke to the lady nearest to me and asked her to remind him that I was there, or he would very likely have simply left the ward without seeing me at all after seeing everyone else. I do not believe he could possibly have failed to see my hospital bed and me in it when moving between the patients sandwiching me in.

Mr Khan finally turned and walked back towards me, yelling loudly and aggressively “WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE?” His tone was hostile and in my face offensive without me so far having said a single word to him. He treated me like I had been discharged and for some reason chose to remain And hog the bed. As with the meals he failed to clear the previous day, the staff could not discharge me without the green light from him, a green light he knew full well that he had not issued. No apology came from him whatsoever regarding his late attendance on the ward, nor did I ask for any apology or explanation for that. I did request an explanation and apology for his What Are, etc bullying outburst which I found deeply offensive and needlessly confrontational and insensitive to me as recovering cancer patient, with diagnosed depression and as he knew, fears that my ongoing hospital stay had potential to ruin important activity in my social and creative career calendar.

2/. “as per the documentation on your electronic file, you were very abusive to Mr Khan for coming late on the ward rounds at 14.00 hours. “ I was not aware that any electronic files exist on me and I believe I should be notified of such and granted full access to them. The data-protection act should surely mean I get to know such information. 2B/. The reason the file says I was abusive to Mr Khan is because he got this totally false claim put on the file, (written either by his hand or through a third party). 2C/. What exactly does Mr Khan and Paul Miller even define and mean by ‘Abuse’ and ‘abusive behaviour’. At no point whatsoever did I swear, threaten violence or raise my voice over ordinary speaking octaves. I dared to disagree with Mr Khan. That is not abuse, it is expressing criticism, concern and pointing out why I was deeply unhappy with his behaviour towards myself. His walking past my bed to the next patient and failed attempt at cutting me completely out of the consultation round afforded to all the other patients was quite explicitly rude, discriminating, intimidating and unprovoked. Add to that his aggressive, abusive unapologetic loud outburst of “WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE?” (the first words uttered by either of us in this, our final meeting) and it is possible to see exactly who the real abuser is in all this. I wonder if the Kafkaesque electronic record Paul Miller alludes to includes a record of the student having to point out to Mr Khan that he had somehow walked right past a patient in such a cold disturbing fashion. Could that student be approached to confirm that this incident occurred if she recalls it some months on from the event? Why does does Paul Miller’s reply to me completely fail to make any reference to this incident, clearly described in my first complaint? He is so keen to sweep this off the table and throw abuse claims in my face that he completely fails to even look at much that I have raised at all. How many other patients have such negative comments on their files without their knowledge, consent or invitation to reply / defend their positions?

“Even though Mr Khan was very upset with your rude behaviour, he continued to be calm and wanted to discuss with you about the further plan of action, however, you still did not stop and forced him to leave the cubicle.”

Again, criticism and complaint is not abuse. I had and have every right to ask Mr Khan to explain his behaviour. He was not willing to explain or apologise for any of it at all. He stomped off when he realised that I was being serious and that I wanted to know why he greeted me with “WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE?” In what universe is it acceptable for any medical staff to approach any patient with loud aggressive in your face comments like that?

“Mr Khan immediately informed the nurse in charge, as he felt threatened, who then promised Mr Khan they would investigate this issue.”

No nurses or other staff spoke to me about any of this. However I was finally granted permission to go home, which was now arranged for after the evening meal.

“Since your behaviour was generally very good, Mr Khan understands that certain situations make people unhappy, hence, he remained silent and did not escalate. “

Oh, how magnanimous of him. Nothing in my behaviour warranted any investigation or punishment.

Then Mr Paul Miller gets extremely unpleasant. “We do occasionally face abusive behaviour from patients, occasionally with a racist tone, however, this was one off which he thought he could be ignored. “

Why is this ‘racist tone slur’ even mentioned other than to insinuate with absolutely zero evidence that there might be some seed of ‘racism’ behind my discomfort with Mr Khan? There is literally nothing racist involved. My complaint regards, 1/.a questionable alternative to surgery that I am left fearing might yet relapse at any moment. 2/. An explicit promise to arrange diet changes that could have bearing on whether I get to go home or not, which was not kept and for which a/. no apology was forthcoming and b/. which Paul Miller completely fails to address or even refer to. 3/. A promise to arrange my discharge which led to an aggressive unprovoked verbal assault with “WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE?” (again ignored and unaddressed by Paul Miller), 4/. Completely snubbing me during the ward round when it happened.

Mr Miller makes this worse by 1/. confusing complaining assertively with good reason with being abusive (especially as the abuse was coming back at the patient in the form of wilfiully ignoring my existence and the line stated in bold. 2/. Referring to some electronic file listing me as a trouble maker, a file that I have not been told of before or given a copy of. 3/. Claiming this file was updated in relation to the Mr Khan events but only with his side of the story as no effort was made to ask me what I might want to say there or have an option to challenge the claims made therein). 4/. Mr Miller’s completely ignoring wholesale several points I raised including the whole food issue occurring the day before the potential discharge events. 5/. The needless and flat out nasty reference to complaints being rooted in racism which effectively tries to tar me with that brush. Race is 100% irrelevant to any of this. I want a proper investigation and a total unconditional retraction of Mister Miller’s racism slur, because that slur really is abuse.

“I do hope that this information provides reassurance that your concerns have been noted. If there is anything further that you feel you would like to discuss, then please do not hesitate to contact the PALS office and we will endeavour to assist in answering any concerns that you might still have. “

Noting concerns and actually dealing with them are two different things.

Returning to the racism libel. There is plenty stated to justify what I said to Mr Khan. Not a single word of it is racist. It may be said however that Mr. Miller is being (a) racist in throwing such a cowardly slap-down in my face. In recognizing that Mr Khan has a non-caucasion skin pigmentation, Mr Miller has exploited that as an excuse to swing the race card into play in a dispute where it has absolutely no place. Mr Miller may be trying to frighten me into not continuing to raise my concerns by use of such hateful, hurtful slurs and their potential to make the situation worse than it is so I back off from fear of how serious it might get. That is intimidating, offensive to me, pushing hard on a depressed bowel cancer survivor who just wants simple honest answers to simple questions like 1/. What exactly, by name and medical procedure was the massaging of my hernia to seperate it from the stoma? Why did the medics about to sign me in for surgery not offer me this as an alternative? I did not get a choice of whether to have this or surgery. I had zero option to make any considered decision in my own treatment. 2/. Why was the diet arrangement plan Mr Khan offered me, not conveyed properly by him to the nurses on my ward? 3/. Why is Mr Khan’s “WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE?” outburst to a patient encased in blankets in a bed not seen as the true aggression and abuse here while my defensive request for answers and an apology for his unprovoked outburst is seen as abuse just because my abuser was allowed to write that unchallenged claim in a document and a/. I’m not given a copy and b/. Mr Miller takes it as gospel just because Mr Khan says so. 4/. Why is Mr Miller allowed to throw hateful, hurtful, sweeping generalisation insinuations that my stance is rooted in some form of racism? Mr Miller is effectively making me feel that I am being seen as some liar, and a racist and that Mr Khan’s behaviour towards me was in some way exemplary. That is far from the case.

Arthur Chappel