Summary
Miss C complained to us that that the medical practice had failed to provide her with appropriate care and treatment when she phoned to report that she was suffering from vaginal bleeding and cramps and was in the early stages of pregnancy. Miss C believed that the GP who she spoke to had inferred that she had suffered a miscarriage. However, later testing revealed that Miss C had not suffered a miscarriage.
The GP had apologised for the miscommunication and said that they had not meant for their comments to be interpreted that Miss C had suffered a miscarriage, but had meant that it was a possibility. We took independent advice from a GP adviser and concluded that the GP had not put themselves in a position to arrive at a potential diagnosis for Miss C's symptoms and that they should have offered Miss C a face-to-face consultation so that they could carry out an examination. This would also have given Miss C some reassurance about her condition. We upheld the complaint.
Recommendations
What we asked the organisation to do in this case: Apologise for the failure to offer Miss C a face to face GP appointment.
We have asked the organisation to provide us with evidence that they have implemented the recommendations we have made on this case by the deadline we set.
Related reading
View Decision Report 201703614 as a PDF (12.2 KB) Updated: March 13, 2018