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 neither the GP or the pharmacy told you to use very sparingly? As someone who has been prescribed various steroid creams, ointments and lotions over the years I’m very surprised if neither told you.

I wouldn’t, unless the treatment from a misdiagnosis was harmful or potentially so. Drs make mistakes too, they’re human. I’d definitely let them know you were misdiagnosed though but a complaint seems too much.

I work in the veterinary field. Quality improvement is an emerging field for us, but should be well established in human medicine.
Quality improvement involves identifying human factors which impact on care, encouraging a speak up culture, auditing clinical data/outcomes and using this to improve protocols and treatments, reviewing complaints/serious cases/near misses, using everything as an opportunity to learn and improve. It is becoming a statutory requirement by the RCVS practice standards scheme so I’m sure the GMC must have something similar.

I think the non-complaint feedback route may be the best way to go, it should feed into reflective practice within the clinical team and help avoid the same mistakes being made again. Perhaps the GP is inexperienced in dermatology and would benefit on focusing some CPD in this area.

@ThisNoisyTealLurker - @chatenoire has said that the treatment she was prescribed is very potent, and could have caused her permanent skin damage, if she had carried on using it, so a complaint does not seem ‘too much’ to me.

Yes, you should complain. The GP needs more training and the practice needs better protocols in place.

I spend a lot time with allsorts of different drs as I have a lot of medical conditions some being really rare. I also spend a lot of time in hospital. Drs making mistakes is very very common if I put a complaint in everytime this happened I wouldn't have time to do anything else. My personal opinion is I will only make an issue of it. If it causes long term harm. The dr will realise by your notes that they made a mistake and hopefully learn from it. Putting in a complaint is a serious thing, iv done it once and never again unless absolutely necessary as the dr ended up losing his medical licence (which I didn't want to happen and tried to stop but they wouldn't listen) and I still get crap from his colleagues years later about it.

I think you're expecting too much.

Yes GPs are in a position of trust, but the clue is in the name, general practitioner. They see thousands of people all with various different symptoms.

It's impossible for them to know every single possible diagnosis with everything they see. Yes they've had years of training but often many problems have lots of similarities with others.

The misdiagnosis didn't cause you any harm and it cleared up by itself.

I've been prescribed all sorts of creams and ointments and other meds over the years and more frequently NOT been told how to properly use them than I have been!

All medication including creams have an information leaflet which explains how to use it correctly.

It's your own responsibility to read it.

@2boyzNosleep - how do you think I know i wasn't told how to use them properly?

I was replying to UnpackingBooks, who queried gp and pharmacist not explaining things (which they still should, regardless of the info leaflet).

Yes, you need to complain.
Not everyone has a dermatologist in the family to save them, and the fact that the second GP as much as conformed the mistake the first doctor made shows what a serious error it was.

You should file another complaint about getting crap from the doctor's colleagues following a complaint.

This is actually outrageous, and a huge breach of professional ethics on their part.

It takes a massive problem for a doctor to lose his or her licence.

Yes complain. They will investigate and if your complaint is well founded lessons will be learned and if not no harm done.

They have one job...

Not the first time. My poor DM has been misdiagnosed by Gpe over the years and nearly died due to it. Your scenario is not major by a long stretch. You could write an email to practice Manager in your recent experince and then move on.

Yes complain. Although GP are not specialist, they should be able to order the proper investigation first.

If It’s due to incompetence, the same GP could be doing more harm to other more patients.

I think the main issue for me here is lack of info about follow-up. Did the GP really not say come back if no improvement by 1-2-10 weeks? Or if it gets worse with/without treatment?

A GP sees a presentation within 48h - in OP’s case - and are expected to get it spot on. Wait 6-18 months to be seen by the specialist in hospital and the disease will be worse, but also more clear by then. Speaking in general terms.

I think it needs feedback but not a complaint.

It's really not worth it they would only club together and deny everything. I learnt thats the difference between drs and nurses, drs stick together and lie for each other, nurses throw each other under the bus. I don't think what the original dr did to me was enough.to lose his licence I assume I was just the final nail in the coffin after multiple issues.

Yes but I would make it clear it was for learning not any resolution with me because I was happy with how th second GP dealt with it.

I’m confused, you had a condition for 8 weeks so went to your GP. They said it may be lichen schlerosus and prescribed steroid cream. 2 days later the skin condition had got better but your cousin (whos a dermatologist) said it wasn’t LS so you went back to the GP, saw someone else who said it was dry skin and prescribed an emollient. You haven’t had an actual test for the condition.
So really, it still could be LS.

I was told what to do for the 12 weeks and come back (for more medicine) if I had another flare up.

Seems unlikely, as I never had LS symptoms. I had pruritus ani and just general dry skin symptoms. When I originally sent my e-consultation, I told them I needed help to manage my stress above anything else as that was causing skin problems.

What type of testing would have confirmed 1 way or another?

Oh don’t be ridiculous.