Complaint about an out of hours emergency doctor.

susiesue_2

nurofen are not really that strong-they work as an anti-inflammatory and should help reduce any swelling as well as act as a pain killer. 3x3 a day isn't really excessive as i think you can take 2 every 4hrs anyway. do the maths. the tonsills may not have had a bacterial infection anyway it may be viral tonsillitits in which case NO ANTIBIOTICS WILL WORK. Glandular fever is caused by a virus too and guess what? antibotics wont work with that either.
if it was a bacterial infection then a differnt antibiotic would be better anyway as to many of the same one causes immunity.

tinkerbell84

If your tonsils are that manky and they're infected so regularly, why don't you get them taken out?

morg_monster

Just to clear up for possibly the OP and a couple of other posters - penicillin is an antibiotic.
What drug name is on your new antibiotic tablets?

i agree with most of the other posters, I'm afraid I can't see that the locum did anything wrong. Under doctors orders a higher dose of ibuprofen is fine. As for the prescription charge - actually he wasn't trying to save the NHS money, I'm sure that ibuprofen is one of the very few medicines that actually makes the NHS money through prescriptions, as £6.95 is probably more than they pay for them! (apologies if you get free prescriptions - which the doctor wouldn't know btw - but a pack of ibuprofen from sainsburys or tescos is about 30p). And it is pretty standard that if an antibiotic doesn't cause any improvement within a couple of days then you get prescribed something else, because it is presumably not a bacterial infection (so might be viral or GF), or it is the minority case where the first antibiotic chosen didn't work, so another is prescribed. Your doctor has sent off your blood test for GF, and has changed antibiotics in the mean time just in case.

Of course complain if you feel you were handled badly, but it doesn't sound as if you were wrongly treated medically, and if this is the case then it comes down to just complaining about his manner, which is important, but might be viewed as a waste of NHS time and money by whoever investigates...
EG I can see how some people wouldn't like the "mankiest tonsils" comment but personally I would have just found it quite funny. It could have been a lot worse!
Hope you feel better soon though, and I really hope you don't have glandular fever, "just" tonsillitis!

Oldernotwiser

You do know that penicillin is an antibiotic don't you? You make it sound as though you think they're 2 different things.

cocoluvsmummy

Op i agree with the other posters here, the Gp you saw on sunday sounds like they made a sensible decision given the information you presented with on sunday, as for saying you had " mankey" tonsils.. yes that wasnt the most professional of comments.. but most of us (me included) quite like it when GPs talk normally. when i saw the out of hours Gp when i had tonsilitis she said.. EEww they look yukky.. i agreed they felt it.

The comments about ibruprofen are also true.. under medical supervision you can take twice the amount it says on the over the counter packets ( i have in the past been prescribed 800mg at a go ..thats 4 of the over the counter ones)

so Op i KNOW you feel like cr*p.. but the GP treated you as would be expected in this set of circumatances.. it seems you may have had a reaction to the particular antibiotics you were given (there are numerous ones out there he could have picked) Have a word with your own gp who you trust about what happened..they will often talk to you on the phone... see what he thinks.. after all he knows you

melancholly

for a short time, taking 3x3 nurofen would do no major harm (although personally, i'd just take bog standard ibuprofen for a fraction of the price). long term it's probably not a good idea but for a couple of days you will not have been in any danger.

it sounds to me like the diagnosis may have been wrong - but that's probably only clear since the initial treatment didn't work and you got worse. that doesn't mean the inital GP was negligent. as other people have said, you can only get a diagnosis of glandular fever after a blood test which always takes a few days. if you also went in asking for antibiotics for tonsillitis, then the GP is likely to think that as you have had this before, you know if it feels the same as last time. i can't see that they did anything wrong.... perhaps they were making a joke about the tonsils - maybe not a good one, but certainly not grounds for a formal complaint in my opinion!

perhaps if it had been that bad, an A&E trip on sunday night may have been an idea (not much help now, but it's never worth suffering at home alone!)

DrFluffy

Your regular GP gave you ANTIBIOTICS for a suspected VIRAL infection???? (Glandular Fever = Epstein Barr Virus)...

To be honest, if treating tonsillitis that could be Glandular Fever, penicillin is the right drug to use (unless you are allergic to it!) as ampicillin and amoxycillin can cause a rash if you have EBV.

melancholly

DrFluffy wrote: »

Your regular GP gave you ANTIBIOTICS for a suspected VIRAL infection???? (Glandular Fever = Epstein Barr Virus)...

lol good point

it's all that talk of the killer MRSA virus that confuses everyone

*Louise*

As mentioned abouve - speak to the practice manager if you have a complaint about your treatment.

I think looking for financial compensation is a bit OTT though.

Doctors do make mistakes - when I was young my mum took me to the doc because I was ill and he told her she was just being 'an anxious first time mother'. :rolleyes: Few days later she got a second opinion and I was straight into hospital as it turned out I had bacterial meningitis, which left me permanently deaf in one ear.

My mum would never have thought about suing - she was just glad I was alive.

If you make a complaint - please do it for the right reasons. ie to prevent anyone else being mistreated, not in order to receive compensation.

That said - I hope you're feeling a lot better now.

bluebell13

I suffer regularly from tonsillitis and am treated exactly the way you were by the emergency GP, with penicillin and painkillers. It takes at least 3 days for the shivering, high temp and feeling awful to subside, even on antibiotics, so it may be coincidence that you are now feeling better (penicillin takes a good while to get out of your system)

As for expecting financial compensation, well I'll save my sympathies for people whose lives wont be back to normal in a few days, such as the victims of the London tube bombers. Sorry.