To want to angrily complain to my GP for giving DD the wrong dose of medicine

[agirlhasnonameX]

I very well could be, I have medical related anxiety and haven't slept, so perhaps I'm blowing out of proportion.

DD3yrs had scarletina (scarlet fever) a few weeks ago and was given a 7 day course of antibiotics. I researched it and found everywhere that a 10 day course is the treatment for it. If not treated properly, it can come back, cause liver and heart problems later in life and pneumonia. I phoned the Dr and asked them if they'd given the correct course as I'd found otherwise and they assured me that 7 days was fine.
She has been at hospital last night with a rash 10x worse and the Dr thinks it's possibly scarletina again (although could also be MC) and now she has been given the correct ten day course to treat it.

I'm not sure if it's a money issue or if they have her less to prevent becoming immune to antibiotics should she ever really need them, although if the latter it seems silly that she will now be taking almost double what she would have if she'd had the correct course to begin with.

AIBU to call my Dr out on this and complain?

The above is taken from the NICE guidelines, which dictate NHS treatment

They don't dictate NHS treatment. There's many instances policies within the NHS don't comply or dont fully comply with NICE guidelines. NICE may outline best practice but it isn't enshrined in law. Different areas have different policies and guidelines that are created specific to their particular resources, needs etc.

It is possible that a local area has different practices to nice guidelines and that's allowable. However such practice should be covered by local written guideline/policy and when such a local guideline is written the rationale for not following nice should be covered, either in the guideline or an appendix.

If that's what they've done then a complaint similar to the one set out below would be good as they will be able to reply back with their reasoning. If that isn't the case then hopefully it will be a learning point for the staff involved to prevent a repeat with another child.

Your anger is understandable, given your child is unwell. However, I think the best thing is to see what they have to say first. Your GP may have had a perfectly good rationale for prescribing a 7 day course- guidelines are there for a guide, doctors use their knowledge to apply them as appropriate to individual patients and their individual presentations. Discussing with the GP would be a good first step.

My mum died in her 40s from a heart complaint caused by scarlet fever as a child so you have every right to kick up a fuss.

Discussing with the GP would be a good first step.

I have to disagree with this—In my experience a negligent GP will try to 'blind you with science' and leave you feeling more confused than when you started.

And I don't buy the "local guidelines" argument—if such a thing had the power to overrule NICE and the NHS, then presumably the local hospital would also have been obliged to follow it.

I would put the complaint in writing as per the template suggested and come back and update us with the reply!

Complain. Talking to the GP will do nothing. Whenever I challenge a GP or ask questions about treatment they can't seem to be bothered to provide explanations that make any sense. I get the impression they make stuff up to shut you up. Either that or they make stuff up because they don't know the answer to the question.

I agree with the earlier poster about keeping the complaint calm and factual though. Complain to the practice manager in the first instance.

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/health/nhs-and-social-care-complaints/nhs-complaints-who-is-your-complaint-against/complaints-about-gps/