GP doesn't help, asks for money, how to complain?

Humphrey10

You should not have gone to A&E for a minor thing like that, that's not what A&E is for.
Just pay to go to a chropadist - I went to one last year, it only cost £15, so it's not expensive. Ask them how to prevent the toe nail ingrowing, and if surgery is needed. If they say surgery is needed, then go back to a GP and insist on this on the NHS.

lollipopsarah

My son has had both big toe nails removed, each time he had to take antibiotics for a week and then pay a chirpodist a week later to do it.
As for the sick note, I would have thought that as a parent you could write a letter asking for your son to be excused from P.E for a few weeks to allow healing, but otherwise with loose shoes he should easily be able to attend lessons.
x

Esoog

SUESMITH wrote: »

Britain doesn't have a written constitution.

It does, it's just uncodified as it's in so many different documents

mr_rush

1. Your GP was asking for payment for a non-NHS service. Same as paying for your vaccination shots or malaria tablets. Your GP is not a charity - why should this (non-NHS) work be done for free?

2. A&Es throughout the land are staffed by some very junior doctors. 95% of the time they will have less experience / knowledge than your GP. Just because the A&E doc did something different, doesn't make it right.

3. An ingrowing toe nail is not an urgent problem. Passing it onto a practice nurse is very reasonable.

neilmcl

linda008 wrote: »

1) He refused to treat my son further and he falsified the medical record by updating the comment that "patient is getting better".

2) He refused to refer to a specialist when there is an urgent need.

He has toe nail ingrown problem and whole toe is swollen and he is in constant pain. It has been a problem for past 2 weeks since I went to the GP. It can't be cured with antibiotic and it certainly needs a specialist attention. So he should have referred to the specialist.

In your extensive medical opinion is that? Why bother going to the GP at all you clearly know better.

room512

I had an ingrowing toe nail and went to the doctor's (hadn't thought of a chiropodist!!!) and he made me an appointment for a couple of weeks later at the surgery and removed it (two injections and pulled the whole toe nail off). I would never have gone to A and E with it!

oldagetraveller

" It can't be cured with antibiotic and it certainly needs a specialist attention. So he should have referred to the specialist."
I've had ingrown toe nails on each of my big toes. One did become infected and anti-biotics certainly didn't work.
I can't understand why a "specialist" is required? Surely most GPs are able to fix this as minor surgery, under local anaesthetic, at the practice premises? Mine did with a three weeks period between each. It's just a sliver of nail removed from the offending part.
I'm surprised you weren't chucked out of A & E and referred back to your GP or a chiropodist, depending on severity, for an ingrown toenail.

jackieb

My son asked his GP for a letter when he was applying to college as he'd been ill the previous year and didn't get to finish his course. She wrote a good letter, explaining why he was absent the previous year and in her opinion college would do him good. We had to pay £12 but I thought that was normal practice?

molerat

mr_rush wrote: »

......................
2. A&Es throughout the land are staffed by some very junior doctors. 95% of the time they will have less experience / knowledge than your GP. Just because the A&E doc did something different, doesn't make it right.
.........................

I went to my GP with a tendon problem. She said I needed to go to A&E and told me exactly what the condition was and what they would do, x-ray, splint and leave it for 6 weeks. When I saw the junior A&E doc I said what the GP had told me. She then had to go away and ask a more senior doc, as it was obvious she had not got a clue, and came back and said that the GP had it all covered

ladymarmalade222

I have previously had experience of bad GP's who would'nt listen to me when I knew my son as a baby was not well at all. It was documented that I was a neurotic mother and they constantly tried to push anti-depressants on me concerned I had a mental illness.

Sometimes as a parent you know when your child is not right. My son had 9 admissions through A&E at our local hospital only to be discharged the following day to be told I was overreacting. I was always sent away with a bottled of calpol telling me in a patronising way "you can never have enough calpol" as if it was some magic cure. I used to arrive at the doctors surgery to be greeted with "Hi Ladym, what is wrong with your son today". My son constantly had a temperature of at least 39 degrees and his nappy was always full of blood. He screamed constantly from morning until night. The answer from the GP and hospital was it was another "Virus".

Eventually I woke to find him saturated in blood in the middle of the night, rang my local hospital in a panic to be told he had too many admissions but they could not turn him away, they said if I brought him in I would be waiting 48hrs for a bed as he was not priority. I then got in the car with him and drove him a number of miles to the nearest childrens hospital, as I arrived they was a bit annoyed due to not being our local hospital but agreed to see him when I lifted the blanket and they saw the blood. He then needed an emergency blood transfusion due to the amount he had lost. He was six months old and they told me if it would have been an hour longer he would have bled to death from his bowel.

A few years on he has endured 2 Bone Marrow Transplants and spent most of his life in and out of hospital. He has a complicated medical history but at least now I have a diagnosis.

I can honestly say I knew after a couple of days there was something seriously wrong with my son, it was just instinct. The GP's receptionists were quite embarrassed and apologised when they realised how poorly he was but it did not make up for how I was treated. I felt I had received appalling treatment and mistakes were made in many areas.

I have to be grateful that my son is still here with me but it was huge fight to get him the treatment he needed and I feel angry now looking back at what I had to do. Even at the childrens hospital following the transfusion they tried to discharge him without a diagnosis, blaming food intolerances and viruses, I said they would have to get the police to get me out of that hospital without knowing what was wrong. Two days later a consultant happened to flick through his notes and said to me how has your son slipped through the net? He had him in theatre within hours for an exploratory operation and then we had a devastating diagnosis. He eventually came home 6 mths later with me trained up to do his intravenous medication for 19 hours a day before they would even consider a Bone Marrow Transplant as he was not well enough to survive it. My life changed literally overnight.

It is ok saying the OP is a nightmare and hopefully her son will fully recover but these mistakes do happen everyday with GP's and Hospitals.

Sorry for the long post but until it happens to you, you just don't realise what a battle it can be.

xx