To send complaint letter to Practice Manager?

[Gemm83]

Almost 4 weeks ago, the night after having a bath with bath bombs, whilst drying 5 year old DD, she screamed ouch whilst drying between her legs. I asked to have a look and she was very red, almost swollen and sore down below. I asked her whether it hurt to wee and she said it did.

Called Dr's and they asked her to come in to give a sample. Because Dr's isn't near school I asked if I could drop off a sample all wrapped in the repeat prescription post box as would have to do it before school. They said that was fine and they would be in contact with a nay or yay. 2 days later, no contact and DD still red and sore and complaining of a tummy ache. Called Dr's for dip results and they said they had never received it...it was in a sealed letter box, all labelled up!! I took her straight up after school and handed in a sample. 2 days later I get a call asking to come in for another test as it was inconclusive. Went in and did another one.... Next day.. Dr would like to see her. He examined her and said that whilst there were white cells in the sample he believed that it was more a reaction to the bath bomb so prescribed canesten and told to take for a week, and if still bad to get back in contact. Redness went down, thought all was OK.

Last Tuesday she was screaming and crying on the toilet clutching her tummy saying it really hurt. Got emergency appointment and did another sample. Dr dip checked it, again inconclusive. I said her previous one had white cells and she looked at me is if I didn't know what I was talking about and said "Well, so does this one, but we need a bit more than that". I asked whether she could send it off for more checks and after agreeing to carry on with the canesten she said she would.

Fast toward today and I get a message to call the Dr's. "Ohh yes the test results have come back and she's got quite a nasty infection so Dr has emailed the pharmacy with an urgent prescription, OK?"

Well.. No it isn't bloody OK! Nearly 4 weeks my little girl has been bloody suffering. Sheer sodding incompetence. Well I think so. I really want to write a strongly worded letter, but don't know whether it's just initial pissed off-Ness. I am also getting fed up with the "you haven't got a clue what you are talking about" attitude from a couple of the GP's.

Should I do it, or get over it?

Sorry for lengthy post, didn't want to drop feed!!!

She hasn’t been suffering for 4 weeks though. Initially she got better with the antifungal cream. It sounds like the UTI was a separate issue to me.

Well the first test went missing which isn’t great, but it could just as easily have been the lab as the GP surgery. The second sample was inconclusive which isn’t anyone’s fault. Then she got better with treatment. Then the third sample didn’t show much sign of infection on the dipstick but did grow bacteria in the lab, and the GP reviewed the result and started treatment quickly.

Realistically I don’t think a complaint would change anything, these things happen. But you can if it makes you feel better.

Took my daughter age 2 or 3 to gp's with certain symptoms was diagnosed with urine tract infection, was prescribed antibiotics for a week... Just before the course was finished, she had a temp of over 40 and was worse, had to take her to A&E, turns out she was given wrong antibiotics. I didn't complain, they can't get everything right 100% of the time, she wasn't in danger. I know its hard and frustrating but I'd leave it

I live reading spurious complaints from people who don't understand how medicine works.

The clinicians who saw you should have taken more time to explain things, but as far as I can see have followed a reasonable course of investigation and treatment.

A formal complaint needs a formal response, this will probably occupy 3-4 hours of a GPs time to go through the notes , extract the information and draft a reply, that's 15 or so appointments that won't happen for other people.

If you're going to complain you need to have a firm grasp of what a normal and acceptable standard of care is, how specifically your treatment fell short, and what harm may have occurred and what remedy would be acceptable.

Thanks all for the input. I think typing the post was quite therapeutic. Will mentally file under "get a grip!"

Your post seems to cover 14 days not four weeks. As Sleepy, a complaint about what exactly? Two days were lost due to the unopened sample but it's not clear to me from your description where the fault of that was - that's worth passing to the practice manager to tighten up, but everything else is exactly as I'd expect.

I hope she gets well soon.

@FixTheBone

Completely down do an individuals perception as to what they believe spurious is. I believed to have had a legitimate concern, but thankyou for your response.

Dip testing doesnt always show an infection. Lab testing will show an infection.

@SpoonBlender

My concern was that the original sample contained cells indicating a possible infection, but it wasn't followed up by sending it off.

Anyhoo, hopefully antibiotics will start kicking in over the next few days 😊

@gemma83 sorry but you are incorrect here. There are no grounds for complaint other than possibly it’s disappointing that the first sample was lost, but this can happen.

Urine dip tests aren’t fully accurate and I wouldn’t prescribe antibiotics based off leukocytes only, as this can be a common finding without necessarily meaning a UTI. It’s also not necessary to send off every sample for a full MSU, infact we have a recent policy released from our CCG trying to discourage us from sending most off, unless they meet certain criteria. So from what you’ve written, there are absolutely zero grounds for complaint and it sounds like your daughter had appropriate care.

Sorry but as a GP I get infuriated by patients kicking off for no reason - PP was write formal complaints if inappropriate can waste a lot of time

@Sparklypurpleunicornsaremyfav just to point out you wouldn’t have been given the “wrong” antibiotics necessarily, what happens when the sample is sent to the lab is they process sensitivities - which can tell us if the bug is resistant and therefore whether the antibiotics need to be changed. This is becoming more frequent with antibiotic resistance, but there is no way to tell this before the sample is analysed and therefore isn’t down to the Drs ‘getting it wrong’

@RunningAwaywiththeCircus I disagree because it sounds like the GP was suspecting a vulvitis instead - which is a really common cause of painful seeing in young girls, and would have been my first thought if she looked sore down below too

*weeing not seeing!

@bobbypinseverywhere

But as a GP if a test is inconclusive, and you have examined a 5 year old who is complaining of a tummy ache, burning when weeing and red, sore, swollen privates wouldn't you send that inconclusive test off for further evaluation?

It probably was vulvovaginitis at the start and she developed a UTI through trying to hold on as it was painful to pass the urine across inflamed tissue.

I'd avoid the bath bombs in future.

@EffieIsATrinket

They are 100% bloody banned! Can't stand the things... She on the other hand loves them. She was given a bath bomb making kit for Christmas and has become obsessed with the things! 🙄

bobbypinseverywhere whereas I appreciate that most times being given the 'wrong' antibiotics isn't technically true, in our case the Dr at the hospital when my daughter was admitted used this term as she was apparently prescribed an antibiotic that was known to be useless against UI's, but I understand this isn't always the case