to complain/sue my GP? (long rant)

[mmrred]

We've all had swine flu. Me and DD (15) had it first, then DH came down with it. He had the Tami-flu, seemed to recover, went back to work last Friday, then on Tuesday night his temp went sky-high, vomiting, sweat rolling off him, shaking...I should have called an ambulance but you don't, do you?

On the phone next morning, GP point-blank refused to visit, talked to him on the phone, told him it was a recurrence of the flu, take paracetemol, can't have more Tami-flu, said I could pick up a 7-day sick note from the surgery.

Next day, another horrendous night, he's no better, and now can't drink because he feels so sick, clearly getting dehydrated, finally get GP to agree to make an emergency home visit after morning surgery - she only has one call to make, she says, she'll be there at the latest 2.30. 3.30pm there's STILL no f*cking sign of her.

Now, at this point I should mention that DH has a history of Hodgekins Lymphoma - he's been clear for 10 years but has reduced lung function and a suppressed immune system (lots of radio and chemo therapy). Ironically he's in the at-risk group and would have been offered the vac but he caught it first. Obviously GP surgery know this.

So, at 3.30 I ring AGAIN. Am pssed about by some snotty receptionist and put on hold for 20* minutes because I refuse to hang up and wait for the Dr to phone me ('cos we all know what would happen if I did) and finally I get the cow on the phone, lecturing me about how busy she is, so I tell her that if anything is wrong with my man I will have no compunction about suing her for malpractice and using the sick note following phone diagnosis as evidence. She arrives within 20 minutes.

Even then, she says 'if it was up to her' she would give DH 250mg's of antibiotic and 'review' the situation in 24 hours. DH continuously tells her he feels dreadful (please bear in mind I had to get my mum & dad to help me lift him out of bed to change the sheets as the bed, pillows, everything was soaked with his sweat)

Finally she consents to call an ambulance - the hospital are great and my DH gets all the tests - he has pneumonia and spends the first 24 hours on an oxygen mask and drip.

He's still on I/V antibiotics now. I am so angry I don't know what to do. Is there an excuse for this? What do I do about complaining?

A lot of GP's wont do house visits unless you are on the housebound register. I work on the community as a nurse so have some sympathy with the lateness of the GP.
You dont know what they have been dealing with before you. Many times I have gone on a visit that on the face of it should have taken 10minutes but ended up taking an hour.

Waiting on the phone for 20 minutes is reasonable. You didnt want the gp to phone you back but presumably they were in consultation with another patient. 20 minutes would be about right. If they had taken the call whilst dealing with the other patient they would have breached your dh confidentiality. the other patient would quite rightly also be pissed off.

If you cannot get your dh out of bed because he is too sick then he needs an ambulance.

I've had pleurisy twice: both times I have been very very ill and my dh has had to call the emergency doctor to come out in the middle of the night. On both occasions I had to wait a couple of hours despite being semi-delirious and crying with pain. I just assumed that it was because the doctor might be off seeing patients who were even more seriously ill than me (there's bound to be some around). On both occasions did I get given antiobiotics rather than get taken away in an ambulance. On both occasions, this turned out to be the right decision, as I recovered and was saved the hassle of an ambulance journey (and somebody more seriously ill might have had my bed). These decisions don't always have to be wrong or irresponsible.

MMrred, that's good news - really good news - means that he's getting enough oxygen already... well enough meaning it's not critical anymore.

Take that as a positive sign. My Mum was on oxygen for days... Hang in there love, thinking of you! Keep in touch when you can.

YANBU,
I too have made commplaint as our gp told me That is NOT a sick baby! without checking my ds1 over ,just by sitting otherside of desk

later that evening he went very floppy,difficulty breathing so took him A&E.
sats were 48% spent the next week with oxygen box over his head, and tube feed through nose.

Glad he's getting better OP. How terriying.

But don't sue - what would that acheive?
Also try not to call hard-working health professionals 'cows'. SHe can't help being late - all those sick-people getting in the way

Fingers crossed for a quick full recovery.