Summary
Mr C complained that there was a delay in his GP practice diagnosing him with skin cancer. He also said that they did not take his concerns seriously and that there was a delay in him receiving medication for nerve damage.
We took independent advice from one of our medical advisers who is a GP and found that the GP practice provided Mr C with a reasonable standard of treatment, making referrals to hospital specialists based on his symptoms. Whilst we were critical that Mr C could have been referred to a dermatology specialist sooner, this was not a significant delay. Furthermore, we did not consider it had any material impact on the time it would have taken for him to be seen. In addition, there was evidence to show that reasonable attempts were made by the GP practice to communicate with Mr C following his surgery. Although the GP practice apologised for the delay in giving Mr C his medication, we found that they were not entirely at fault. However, we upheld Mr C's complaint that the GP practice did not provide him with appropriate explanations about the reasons for the delay in prescribing his medication.
Related reading
View Decision Report 201404508 as a PDF (11.15 KB) Updated: March 13, 2018