GP Complaint - Am i in the right here?

[Kwill121]

Hi Everyone,

I've used this forum as me and my wife have always come here whenever we have had concerns with the children and felt so much at ease when others have discussed the same issues and really wanted to come here today for an opinion on our situation.

Its abit long winded, I'll try and condense it as much as I can ! sorry

Our son is 8 years old and since early last year his hearing became an issue, and we took him to the doctors where we seen a practice nurse, she said he had slight wax in his ear and to go away with oil and it would shift. It never did !... We gave it time but his hearing wasn't any better.
We took him back again where we seen another practice nurse who said its a slight infection and gave us eye drops (apparently these can be used in the ear?) they never worked and his hearing was deteriating still. I need to point out that I had requested a hearing test each time I took him and explained my concerns.
Again there wasn't any progress so we took him back again, as he had a parents evening and the school expressed their concern and had advised it was effecting his school work, and his ear was now beginning to smell, when we took him back he was given another set of eye drops and off we went ! I had advised he had been numerous times before but there was no concern on her behalf.
My sons hearing at this point was getting really bad so I took him again where I finally got to see the GP, and I demanded a referral to ENT as something was right, he was deaf in this ear and it smelt, he gave us another set of drops and said bring him back should this carry on, it did and I took him back, he was then referred.

The referral was in 2 months time, when the day finally come the consultant said to me, this ear should never of been left this long and assumed I had just left my son and I had to correct him. The consultant said to me that an infection should never be this bad in a childs ear, not in this country and the only solution for my son now was surgery.

In the meantime, waiting for the referral my son started to develop a rash all over his body and his skin was peeling, this was something he suffered from whenever he was run down, so I knew the two where linked. My wife took him back to the doctors and he was seen by the most awful nurse. The day before I had requested my sons medical records to see how long we had been taking my son, which she clearly knew about.

She spoke to my wife awful, and actually said why haven't you brought him sooner (she clearly had never read his notes like the previous nurses) she then said to my son, here is your cream, its going to sting but that's how it goes! the most awful attitude and she scared me son, putting the cream on was a nightmare after that!

I written to the practice manager with all my concerns and everything that has gone on, I have an hours appointment tomorrow from the GP where they called and said he would like to discuss a referral, I thought an hour was very long to see a doctor.

My post is to see if anyone else would of done the same thing and any advice on this if anyone has had a similar issue, the practice manager written back and advised they would contact me in two weeks.

Any advice would be extremely appreciated

Regards

Our primary care system does require patients or their parents to be proactive.

But that should not be acceptable. There are many people that due to disability, mental health problems, upbringing or intelligence can't be proactive. Do they deserve to get worse or be in pain because that's how the system works?
Not just that but people are often told on here and in real life to trust the doctor,nurse,HV etc, they are the experts and professionals and went to school for x years and bla bla bla. But when a patient and a parents does trust them and things get worse then it's their fault for not being pro active enough? Come on..

nocoolnamesleft how would that be allowed?

I remember getting an appt for DS with a nurse practitioner I had never heard of before. A while later the surgery phoned and said they didn’t realise his age. And she could not treat children.

The nurse practitioner we normally see is pretty good and I do trust her.

OP hope your boys ear is better soon.

Honestly? In your shoes I'd be contacting a medical negligence lawyer.

Based on the specialists comments and the possibility of a permanent disability for your child being the result I think the sooner the better.

It's notoriously hard to get complaints against gp's upheld and you and your family may need additional support and resources in the future.

Personally I've been through similar with dd with repeated visits not only to gp but a&e and 1 inpatient stay before DX we now know as a result of her genetic disability which was ignored/undx until she was in high school. Slightly less obvious more subtle symptoms in our case but the final appointment that led to a referral I was in the frame of mind I'd be insisting on a referral to a specialist. As it happened we had a locum dr that time (I've since learned for various reasons they're more likely to make referrals than regular gp's) and she not only listened to the problem that time, what we were saying about repeated similar problems but also looked through dds notes and spotted a pattern, even with symptoms we hadn't previously linked which she asked about - that included the impatient incident.

Upon going to the specialist that dr basically sussed what was wrong before we sat down! (Dd has physical characteristics very different to me her mum that can be indicative of her disability) though of course she was examined and thorough history taken before DX.

We didn't really have the option of legal action as she received appropriate treatment for each issue at the time and their neglect didn't cause the disability (I did look into it at one point), dd also didn't want to go through the stress of that which is fair enough and her decision.

We too changed Drs.

Dohee while I agree the nurses in this case failed in their professional responsibility and are hardly good examples I don't think you understand how nurse practitioners are trained or what they're qualified to do.

They can and do diagnose, prescribe and arrange referrals where necessary.

"Our primary care system does require patients or their parents to be proactive." That's a cop out! It's absolutely unacceptable and as pp said there are MANY patients - the MOST vulnerable ones in fact - who don't have the capability to be assertive or proactive.

In addition there's been numerous cases of patients being "punished" as "awkward patients" when they've tried to be assertive or proactive and been effectively blacklisted in primary care in their locale - I've seen it happen. It's a particular problem for patients with mental illness and/or learning disabilities.