GP misdiagnosed a condition, would you file a complaint?

[chatenoire]

Posting here for traffic. I went to my local surgery and got seen by GP A. Said GP diagnosed me with a chronic and life changing condition. Most ladies who suffer from it take months if not years to get a full diagnosis, a biopsy can be part of it. Normally diagnosed by specialist, but GP can diagnose if confident. I had only had symptoms for like 8 weeks and were not debilitating and I knew if I didn't cause them at least I made them worse. My symptoms didn't not match that condition.

The more I read about it, the more I started to question the original diagnosis. I also fully recovered within 48hrs and that diagnosis normally takes months to get back to remission. In the meantime, my cousin a dermatologist said that it was extremely unlikely to be what they diagnosed me with (it's a skin condition).

So I went back to the surgery to be seen by another GP. GP B said that as much as she could see where the original GP was coming from (although she said that would that never have been enough to give a full diagnosis), GP A definitely misdiagnosed me when you looked at the whole set of symptoms, circumstances, timelines, etc... and that I most certainly wouldn't have recovered so quickly. In fact I needed to stop the treatment cold turkey as it was going to cause more harm than good.

So the question is would you complain about GP A?

So you got better and had good treatment and came to no harm? No. Medicine isn’t perfect and I am confused why you would complain

What do you hope the outcome of your complaint to be?

No. The practice will now know that GP A made a wrong diagnosis and will discuss it internally. Nobody is perfect. I’d rather the practice had time for more appointments than got tied up dealing with your complaint.

If I hadn't figured it out, I would have permanently damaged my skin.

No. What would your desired outcome be? Medics assess evidence and get things wrong because they’re not infallible.

I think I know what this condition is… and I agree, ideally should be biopsy confirmed given the chronicity and longer term periodic nature of treatment. It’s difficult just now because there’s up to a year to see the appropriate specialist in my area.

You could complain, it depends on what you want the outcome to be. Alternatively you could write a ‘non complaint’ explaining the scenario and your reflections- this would be discussed at practice (or at least GP colleague level) and used as a constructive learning case.

I think you should put a complaint in. Misdiagnosis is dangerous. You could be doing future patients a favour.

How long would it have been before you had to go back to review treatment?

You didn’t read the post.

OP, depending on the seriousness, you could take the non-complaint route but it sounds pretty serious to me. I don’t know what the formal route is but you could complain outside of that.

I wasn't told I needed any future review, just ask for an appointment on an ad hoc basis if I had another flare up. Which I was told I definitely would get.

So what do you want the outcome of a complaint to be?

Retraining? Differential diagnosis for chronic/complex conditions?

What is the condition and what was the treatment that would cause damage beyond repair?
It’s like a guessing game. Who knows.
At least they took you seriously, presuming you were worried enough to go in the first place?

I was bleeding and oozing enough to wet clothes, so ignoring me would certainly be considered malpractice.

Yes, but there’s a danger that they (and others) won’t learn from their mistakes, if the mistakes are quietly brushed under the carpet. Transparency is vital in medicine, and not drawing mistakes to anyone’s attention because ‘doctors are only human’ (we know, we really do!) is a really odd and shortsighted way to deal with possibly life-endangering/changing gaps in knowledge and errors of judgement.

I don't think I would make a complaint as such, but I might write a letter to explain my experience saying you wouldn't want someone else to go through it and perhaps the GP could take it into account when considering other patients in a similar situation.

Everyone makes mistakes. It doesn’t sound like they could win to be honest. Ignore you - malpractice, treat you - complaint. Have to get it spot on every time- seems unrealistic.

I would made sure they are aware of it, yes. That isn't necessarily a complaint. It's about making sure that all clinical staff are up to date on training and protocols to follow.

You remind me that I keep meaning to contact our surgery for the same reason. My 6 year old had Lyme disease. He had a classic bullseye rash (like you couldn't get any more textbook), we live on a farm/in a wooded area with a lot of ticks, he had a fever, joint pain, fatigue. It took 3 GPs to diagnose him. The first said, fungal infection and gave us some fungal cream. The 2nd said must be something viral, just give it time. Both of these appts were in-person. The 3rd was a phone consult where she looked at a photo of the rash that I sent and called within minutes. Her own dc had recently had Lyme so she said that made her really sensitive to the diagnosis and lots of GPs miss it, even when they see an obvious bullseye rash. We just made the cut off for starting antibiotics before they would have no longer been effective. Ds was really ill for several weeks.

I have absolutely no confidence that this was ever discussed amongst any of them, but it should be. I would have hoped it triggered renewed training on Lyme because 2 out of 3 missed it, even when there were photos uploaded into the system that should have been independently reviewed at triage. I should have written a letter at the time and I still might. It isn't about getting anyone in trouble, but clinicians are only human (I work with them). They miss stuff, especially when they aren't well trained in an area. If there is an issue, it can trigger a discussion about how to prevent this from happening again. It's not about getting anyone in trouble. It should be about improving services.

Exactly, it's just to improve the services. Ultimately, they would have also saved money/resources in this particular instance.

I just don't want anyone to experience the same again. I'm really glad I have my cousin (and the support groups I found) but if I had believed the diagnosis I would have thought my sex and sporting lives were over.

Can you not just say what skin issue would have caused sex and sporting life to be over. I am truly mystified.

I have complained recently, kept being ignore and it being put down to health anxiety (which I didn’t have) turned out to be quite serious. I put in the complaint in the hopes to improve it going forward and hopefully someone else doesn’t get dismissed like that. People are so quick to say send a complaint to Tesco, the holiday company etc about bad service but health we’re just suppose to ignore.

It's called Lichen Sclerosus. Basically your vulva and vaginal opening can get fused, and some people need surgery. In men, they'd need to get circumsized. I cycle and run, but sweat and pressure from the saddle can cause a flare up. There's no cure, just management, and 5% end up getting vulvar cancer.

That's the worst case scenario, but that doesn't mean that didn't start playing in my head. Many medical articles did advise against cycling..

What treatment did you get given then as I thought the initial treatment would be topical steroids and that would be the same as treatment for lots of different problems . Did the GP actually say this is definitely lichen sclerosis or did they say it looks very much like it is lichen sclerosis?

It doesn't need to be a formal complaint, which necessitates their complaints process being followed and can take considerable time to respond to and will probably be quite demoralising for the GP.

You could just contact the surgery, say you are not making a complaint but feeding back, you want to bring it to their attention and could the GP in question be made aware of the error so they are aware in future. That's probably what I'd do in your position I don't think it warrants a full complaint.

Yes, I was given Dermovate (Clobetasol) which is super potent. www.psoriasis.org/potency-chart/

I ended up just having dry skin and was given an emollient instead, no need for steroids.

The GP said I had LS not only in my crutch/butt but also in my face, neck, and ears.