A practice in the Hampshire area

3. Miss N says she had an ectopic pregnancy, requiring emergency treatment, as a result of her pregnancy not being identified when she was fitted with a coil (a contraceptive device placed inside the womb). Miss N says the prescribed antibiotics were unnecessary as there was no firm diagnosis of PID. Miss N says this event has caused her to develop a lack of trust in the Practice doctors, leading to her finding a new GP practice to rebuild her trust in NHS services.

4. Miss N is looking for an apology and an admission of wrongdoing from the doctor who treated her. She also wants compensation for the negligence she believes took place when the Practice did not diagnose an ectopic pregnancy and misdiagnosed PID.

5. Miss N contacted the Practice, with symptoms of pelvic pain, on 24 May 2022. She had a telephone consultation with a doctor, during which she said she was experiencing intermittent, sharp, lower-pelvic pain.

6. Miss N had a face-to-face appointment on 27 May 2022, during which a swab test was done to investigate the possibility of PID. Miss N was told the doctor would consider whether she needed to be referred to gynaecology services.

7. Miss N contacted the Practice again on 31 May 2022 as she was experiencing continued symptoms. A doctor unsuccessfully tried to speak to her to respond to her queries, and they provided the results of the swab test through an electronic system. The results were normal and the Practice prescribed antibiotics to treat Miss N’s ongoing symptoms.

8. Miss N asked the Practice for advice on 1 June 2022, when she talked to a doctor about the pain she was experiencing. She told the doctor she did not want to take antibiotics. The doctor gave Miss N advice on what to do if her condition worsened and told her she would be referred to gynaecology services.

9. Miss N was admitted urgently to hospital on 2 June 2022. She was found to be pregnant and to have experienced an ectopic pregnancy.

11. The law says we cannot investigate a complaint if a person has (or had) the option to take legal action, unless we consider this is (or was) unreasonable in the circumstances. We have discussed this with Miss N to understand her circumstances and the outcomes she wants. We do not consider whether legal action would succeed, but whether it would be a reasonable option to investigate.

12. In general terms, clinical negligence takes place when a patient who has received a treatment becomes injured as a result of that treatment or when there has been a failure to carry out an appropriate treatment. This is a legal judgement on which we cannot provide a ruling.

13. Miss N says the Practice doctors incorrectly diagnosed her condition by not carrying out a pregnancy test. This resulted in incorrect treatment and emergency hospital care for an ectopic pregnancy. Miss N wants financial compensation for negligence in the care she received.

14. Miss N has considered our severity of injustice scale (a tool to assess how seriously someone was affected by what they experienced) and feels the injustice she has suffered is at level four, which is linked to compensation up to £2,950. Miss N explains she has not asked for legal advice due to the financial costs she may face. We have given her information on solicitors providing a no win no fee option, so she can ask for advice on whether she can bring her case to court.

15. Having considered the impact described by Miss N, we think her complaint would more likely be at level one or level two on our scale. As such, she may not be satisfied by the amount of compensation we could achieve, even if we investigated and upheld her complaint through our process.

16. The timescale for taking legal action is also strict. We believe Miss N would be wise to ask for legal advice while she still may have the option of making a clinical negligence claim.

17. If she needs to contact us again after she has done this, we can then consider reopening her complaint. For example, if she found out she cannot make a claim, we might reconsider our position depending on what has changed. Our time limit would still apply, so she would need to contact us quickly. We can only extend our time limit if there are good reasons to do so.

Conclusion

18. Having taken all the circumstances into account, we consider it is reasonable for Miss N to explore the possibility of taking legal action on her complaint to achieve the outcomes she wants.

19. We understand this might not be the decision Miss N was hoping for, and we are sorry for any further distress this may cause. We hope our explanations explain clearly why we are unable to consider her complaint further now and why taking legal advice is the best option for her.

1. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has carefully considered Miss N’s complaint about a practice in the Hampshire area (the Practice). We consider Miss N could take legal action on the matter she has brought to us.

2. Miss N complains the Practice did not recognise symptoms of an ectopic pregnancy (a pregnancy that develops outside the womb) and did not complete a pregnancy test during her consultations. The Practice prescribed antibiotics for pelvic inflammatory disease (PID - an infection of the female reproductive system), which Miss N says she did not have. We are sorry to learn of her experience, which must have been very distressing.