Summary
Ms C complained that her GP practice had failed to diagnose her or refer her appropriately, despite consistent reports of stomach pain. This pain persisted until she was diagnosed with Helicobacter infection (Helicobacter pylori is a germ that can live in the stomach), and it was successfully treated. Ms C said she felt she had been ignored and treated with a lack of respect. Ms C added that, even once Helicobacter infection had been diagnosed, she felt the practice had not treated her within a reasonable time-frame.
We took independent advice from one of our GP advisers. The advice received was that the practice had followed national guidelines in its attempts to diagnose and treat Ms C for the pain she was experiencing. The practice performed the appropriate tests on Ms C and it was noted that, on occasion, she had declined medical advice and declined appropriate referrals, which would have speeded up her diagnosis.
On the basis of the advice received, we found that the practice had acted reasonably and that they had not delayed in referring Ms C for specialist opinion.
Related reading
View Decision Report 201405246 as a PDF (11.12 KB) Updated: March 13, 2018