A practice in the Fareham area

4. Mr S complains about aspects of care and treatment provided to him by the Practice between 6 June and 24 July 2024.

5. He complains the Practice: • made him fill in forms and refused to allow him to do things over the phone • did not manage his medication properly, and auto renewing and other medication was not managed correctly • do not adhere to yearly follow ups for his heart and gastric sleeve surgery • did not provide full records when he made a Subject Access Request (SAR) and charged him £50 • did not offer him a private and confidential space to discuss sensitive personal information • placed him on a Special Allocation/Special Patient Access pathway without justification.

6. Mr S says this has caused him huge amounts of stress.

7. Mr S wants the Practice to acknowledge its mistakes, make reasonable adjustments so he can access its service, remove/amend the record of him needing Special Allocation, and in relation to triage/contact, and ensure he has a suitably private place to discuss sensitive medical information.

8. Mr S registered with the Practice on 7 March 2024. He registered elsewhere at the end of July 2024.

9. Mr S says he was not satisfied with the care and treatment he received from the Practice and made a formal complaint on the 6 June 2024.

10. The Practice responded to Mr S on the 13 June, 1 July, 8 July and 23 July 2024.

13. Before we decide if we should conduct a detailed investigation of a complaint, we look at whether there are signs the organisation got something wrong. We do this by comparing what should have happened with what did happen. We have done this and have found no indications the Practice did anything wrong.

Reasonable Adjustments

14. Mr S says the Practice refused to allow him to do things over the phone as a reasonable adjustment. Mr S says he was told everything had to be done online. Mr S says due to illness he is not able to use a computer and fill out forms online, send emails or reply at length to text messages.

15. The Practice said there is no specific record of what was discussed when Mr S joined the Practice on the 7 March 2024. However, it said generally staff would explain when a patient registers that it provides online services.

16. Mr S’s medical records and the responses from the Practice show in June the Practice offered him a telephone conversation or face to face meeting to discuss his medical conditions and his concerns about his access options.

17. The Practice also wrote to Mr S on the 1 July inviting him to the Practice to discuss his concerns, but unfortunately Mr S could not make the dates offered. Mr S says the dates offered were not convenient.

18. The Practice wrote to Mr S on the 8 July offering a further date for a face-to-face meeting.

19. There is no evidence the Practice told Mr S he needed to ‘do everything online’. There is evidence it offered him several opportunities to discuss his concerns over the phone and in person.

20. Our principles of good administration say organisations should provide services that are easily accessible to their customers. We recognise that an increasing number of people like to access services online and so we understand why the Practice allows people to do this, and appreciate it likely told Mr S about this when he registered. We are sorry if he interpreted this as he could only access services online, as this was clearly not the Practice’s intention. The Practice’s website confirms that patients can request an appointment through its online platform or call or visit the Practice.

21. We have seen no evidence the Practice only provide online access, and the records indicate it did offer Mr S various opportunities to discuss his concerns in person and on the phone. Because of this, we have found no indication anything went wrong.

Medication

22. Mr S tells us the Practice did not auto renew his medication, especially his B12 injections. The Practice explained it had a system in place to manage his B12 prescriptions.

23. On 20 March 2024 the Practice text Mr S to confirm his B12 appointment was on Wednesday 8 May at 1.20pm. Records confirm Mr S attended this appointment and received his B12 injection.

24. Records also show the Practice text Mr S on 17 May to say it had booked him an appointment for 4 July at 3.30pm for his next B12 injection. This appointment also took place, and the records show a follow up B12 injection was booked for 29 August. The records show Mr S confirmed he could attend and that he put the appointment details into his phone.

25. The Practice said in its response to the complaint that on 17 May 2024 it arranged for medications under ‘repeat dispensing’ so that Mr S could attend the pharmacy each month to collect his next prescription. This is supported by the records which show Mr S was registered with a repeat prescription scheme which ensured he would get his medications in clearly labelled compartments to ensure he would take the correct dose at the right time.

26. The Practice also said that when it received a prescription request on 6 June, it processed this on the same day and sent it electronically to the pharmacy, which was within its standard three-working-day turnaround time.

27. We appreciate Mr S is concerned the Practice did not adequately arrange for his prescriptions to be managed on a repeat basis. We can reassure him this does not appear to be the case. The Practice’s account is supported by the records and shows that it had systems in place to ensure he got his prescriptions. We note he left the Practice on 24 July 2024, but before this, he received his B12 injections and was on repeat prescribing. We hope he is reassured by what we have seen.

Annual follow up

28. Mr S complains the Practice is responsible for yearly follow-ups for his heart and gastric sleeve surgery, and it is not adhering to this.

29. Mr S raised this aspect of his complaint with the ICB, not the Practice. The ICB responded on 20 February 2025 and confirmed that follow-up care for his heart and gastric sleeve surgeries would be managed by secondary care and recommended that he contact the Trust responsible for this care.

30. We have no reason to doubt the ICB’s account here, and given Mr S is no longer registered with the Practice there is no reason for us to look into this further. We hope he is getting the support and follow up he needs.

Subject Access Charge

31. Mr S says the Practice did not provide him with his full records when he made a Subject Access Request (SAR) and it charged him £50. Mr S tells us the ICO investigated this complaint and found the Practice had not complied with his request.

32. As the ICO has already investigated this complaint, there is no reason for us to also investigate it. We were however pleased to note that the Practice offered Mr S a full refund.

Private and confidential space

33. Mr S complains the Practice did not offer him a private and confidential space to discuss sensitive personal information.

34. The Practice said that on 22 July 20224 a GP unsuccessfully tried to call Mr S. The Practice said Mr S then visited the Practice later that day when, unfortunately, there was not a private space available for him to discuss his concerns. The Practice explained it is restricted with space on site and apologised that a private room was not available when he visited.

35. GMC's guidance on confidentiality says that practices must take reasonable steps to protect patient privacy and dignity, which includes arranging a private space for sensitive discussions whenever possible.

36. Mr S attended the Practice unplanned and without an appointment and unfortunately no rooms were available.

37. The Practice apologised that it could not provide a private room due to restricted space. We empathise with Mr S and recognise he remains frustrated no space was available. We do not think what happened falls so far below what should happen that it amounts to service failure, but we are pleased to note the Practice apologised.

Special Allocation Scheme

38. Mr S says the Practice placed him on a Special Allocation Scheme (SAS) pathway without justification. The SAS is a scheme within the NHS in England designed for patients who have been removed from a GP practice list due to violent, aggressive, or abusive behaviour, or for posing a significant risk to staff or other patients. The scheme ensures such individuals still have access to essential medical care while taking appropriate precautions to protect healthcare staff and others.

39. Mr S says he appealed the decision to remove him from the Practice. Information from the relevant ICB confirms that it was not appropriate for the Practice to issue an immediate removal notice.

40. Mr S wants any reference to the SAS scheme removed from his records.

41. Mr S is no longer with this Practice, and we note he has not asked it, or his current Practice to amend his records or include an addendum clarifying what happened. Article 16 of the UK GDPR (Right to Rectification), allows individuals to have inaccurate personal data rectified or incomplete personal data completed, including by means of a supplementary statement. As Mr S has not given the Practice the opportunity to put this right this complaint is not ready for us.

42. We want to thank Mr S for bringing his complaint to us, complaints give us valuable insight into the organisations we investigate, so we would like to thank Mr S for sharing his experience with us. It is important to acknowledge that although we are unable to look at Mr S concerns further, this does not detract from the experience Mr S had, or the impact this had on him.

1. We have carefully considered Mr S’s complaint about the Practice. We are sorry to hear of what Mr S has been through. We can see this has been a difficult time for him.

2. We have decided not to consider this further because we have seen no indications the Practice did anything wrong.

3. We are sorry if our decision causes any further distress as this is not our intention. We understand this may not be the decision Mr S wanted. We thank Mr S for the effort he has gone to in bringing his complaint to us. We hope this report explains our decision clearly.