Negligent Locum?

Counting_Pennies_2

Just to inpart my side of an injury claim, which in effect is the same line the insurers will take.

I had a head on car crash with my 18 month old inside the car. I sustained the usual car crash injuries that would come from such a crash, 6 years on I still have great issues with one of my ankles.

The insurers of the other driver phoned me and admitted their driver was at fault. He was a big wig for a company, and it was the company's insurer who called (looking back on it now, I wonder if he has done this many times!). They said due to my injuries they would provide me with compensation, just fill in the form and it would go through.

Anyway, the point of my post is to say I went through nearly 2 years of medical checks, several different doctors and ended up with £2000 at the end of it.

I had to attend numerous appointments, was questioned on my validity and quite frankly it was an unnerving and quite nasty experience.

Your friend sounds rather busy, and I think going down this road would be quite stressful.

My case was open and shut, yet it was unpleasant, and if I had had my time again I wouldn't have agreed to go for compensation.

The best advice I can give your friend is to economise and get the bills paid, don't go pursuing somethiing which is questionable in its outcome.

The doctor has complained and the locum has apologised. I would say his punishment will happen behind the scenes with the the GP surgery maybe not even using him again. He now knows what he should have done.

Move on......

donteatthat

zaksmum wrote: »

I would say you can claim medical negligence for financial harm, if negligence was such that, say, you lost your job as a result of being temporarily unable to work.

The issue is that my friend feels she would have been able to return much earlier to work had the locum given her medication when she first asked for help.

His attitude was almost angry with her on the phone...like, if you're THAT bad, go to hospital ...next please..!

She didn't feel able to argue with him and should have called an ambulance but just stayed in bed and prayed to feel better in the morning.

And no, my friend doesn't smoke. There's a family history of the COPD that has severely affected many members so she knows better than to smoke.

Oldernot wiser, thank you. I didn't know you could get a prescription for prednisolone to use when needed and will tell her.

But she hasn't lost her job - she has just (debatably) just been ill for longer than she liked because she decided she wasn't ill enough to go to hospital, but waited another week before seeking further medical assistance.

What action is she planning to take against her sons who were too busy to be bothered with her to take her to the GP sooner? Surely they are in some way culpable too and should offer some financial compensation for her losses?

We are descending into a blame culture in this country for exactly this kind of thing. It's almost like trying to blame the locum for the fact that she became ill in the first place!

tooldle

I too have COPD, the message from my consultant is always very clear. If I am unwell with severe pain on breathing and cannot get an appointment with the GP or physically not able to get there, get to casualty. If I cannot get there myself, call the ambulance service. Consultant will also see emergency requests in clinic (on clinic days) if requested via the secretary. Is this lady regularly reviewed at hosp?
This group of diseases is not always lifestyle related, I have never smoked. A supply of antibiotics is often helpful bu the hospital can administer these intravenously which acts far quicker. The lady should have followed the advice given, in my opinion.

**Patty**

Thing is OP......you weren't present at the time of that telephone call anymore than i or any other member of this forum. You are asking us to give an opinion on facts that are being relayed 3rd-hand.
We have no idea in which tone of voice the locum spoke to your friend......it is only her perception that he/she was *lacking in concern/care*.

docjames_2

A slightly confusing story here - i suspect through no fault of the OP but lack of clarity in events.

On the face of it, the correct advice by the doctor was given - symptomatic relief as per the normal advice in flu-like illness. However, should symptoms be worse than usual flu-like illness and with a background of COPD, AND if for whatever reason the person was unable to attend the surgery as they were so unwell - an ambulance would be appropriate as advised by the doctor. So there is unlikely any negligence here! Also a week later, when she was apparently "much worse", she managed to make it to the surgery - sounds a bit odd really...suggests things werent so bad a week ago in reality (in the world of medicine bad things get really bad in usually less than 24hrs).

Also if the oxygen levels are below a certain level, patients automatically get admitted to hospital to get supplementary oxygen so i would suspect if only oral medication was given and the patient sent home then it wasnt actually that low.

An important point to note :

Home visits are done at the discretion of the doctor NOT at the request of a patient. Home visits are both costly in terms of time spent away from the practice (at least 4 or 5 patients can be seen in the surgery at the time it takes to do one visit) and also in travel costs. As seen with the recent snow crisis most doctors are still willing to go the extra mile for their patients with visits.

funguy

It is ridiculous to suggest that a lady of this age needs a doctor to visit her in the house.
Doctor house visits should surely be for terminal ill people and those permanently housebound only. No wonder the NHS is struggling to cope with things. In Australia, even most nursing home residents have to and are happy to attend their doctor in the surgery. In this financial climate, I think extra things like this should incur a charge for the patient as an additional service due to the extra cost to the NHS and ultimately the taxpayer!

Pigget

I hope your friend is feeling better now.

I can't comment on the question of negligence but have a comment for the future.

Hopefully such a situation won't arise in the future, but perhaps you could suggest to your friend that she keeps the phone number of a few local taxi companies and say £20 stashed somewhere so if need be she can call a taxi to take her to the GP/hospital.

dmg24

zaksmum wrote: »

like, if you're THAT bad, go to hospital ...

And herein lies the answer - she failed to take medical advice.

There_Goes_Trouble

I think that the question here is not about medical negligence, the advice given was sound - go to hospital. The attitude of the doctor may be questionable but that's not the same thing as medical negligence.

zaksmum

docjames wrote: »

A slightly confusing story here - i suspect through no fault of the OP but lack of clarity in events.

On the face of it, the correct advice by the doctor was given - symptomatic relief as per the normal advice in flu-like illness. However, should symptoms be worse than usual flu-like illness and with a background of COPD, AND if for whatever reason the person was unable to attend the surgery as they were so unwell - an ambulance would be appropriate as advised by the doctor. So there is unlikely any negligence here! Also a week later, when she was apparently "much worse", she managed to make it to the surgery - sounds a bit odd really...suggests things werent so bad a week ago in reality (in the world of medicine bad things get really bad in usually less than 24hrs).

Also if the oxygen levels are below a certain level, patients automatically get admitted to hospital to get supplementary oxygen so i would suspect if only oral medication was given and the patient sent home then it wasnt actually that low.

An important point to note :

Home visits are done at the discretion of the doctor NOT at the request of a patient. Home visits are both costly in terms of time spent away from the practice (at least 4 or 5 patients can be seen in the surgery at the time it takes to do one visit) and also in travel costs. As seen with the recent snow crisis most doctors are still willing to go the extra mile for their patients with visits.

She got to the surgery when they said they could see her - there was an open surgery where an appointment wasn't needed. She got there only with the help of her son.

I do agree she should have called an ambulance but possibly she was afraid, like many people, of being admitted to hospital, especially after her younger sister passed away from COPD complications after being admitted.

She asked for a prescription for antibiotics in the hope they'd help her, but when the locum refused to come out, she convinced herself she mustn't need them and stayed in bed in the hope she'd feel better in the morning.

And yes, the sons WERE negligent too. One's a deadbeat who seems to take all the time, the other less so but still could do much more for her. I was really annoyed with them but my friend always makes excuses for them.