Incompetent Gp?

[dunnitall]

If you kept presenting to your GP with same symptoms for a few years and they got worse would you expect them to have gone back back further into your notes to try to find a diagnosis or would being over 70 mean they wouldn't bother? OH has chronic health probs and has been presenting with lethargy, tiredness, fatigue and breathlessness but nothing looked into properly until last year when things had become much worse and we asked for tests to be carried out in case it was heart probs again. Had echocardio, chest X-ray, bloods done and nothing found re heart.

Out of the blue last week recd a letter saying come in for a review due to your rheumatoid arthritis! Never been told RA had ever been diagnosed so was a complete shock and thought they got wrong patient. Saw nurse who dug through the notes, said RA and Felty Syndrome mentioned on the notes seven years ago..yet nothing mentioned to OH ever about these two conditions. On looking up we now see the symptoms which have gradually worsened and have made life very difficult are typical symptoms of both illnesses! Yet to see GP about it in a week for more information, could we reasonably expect an apology from them or is incompetence something they rarely admit to?

[Sqad]

I think that you have mentioned your concern over the health of your OH previously.

If.....IF.....he had Felty's syndrome diagnosed 7 year previously and this information was not transmitted to your OH than that is a dereliction of duty presented by your GP.

[dunnitall]

Yes squad I have mentioned concerns over OHs health including the tiredness and it wasn't until we saw nurse who read through the notes that she mentioned FS was mentioned in them all that time ago. She actually profusely apologised for us not having been told or it being investigated further at the time even though she wasn't a member of the practice then. Will obviously have to see what GP says but it was the way it's been handled that has infuriated me because the tiredness has always been dismissed I think more because of age when now I feel investigation of previous notes and tests should have been looked up.

[KARL]

To some/many it would seem reasonable to expect an apology for a mistake but on the other hand it is distinctly unrealistic to expect one from a member of the medical profession, individually or collectively. Sadly, it is only too easy to come across incompetence there and all too often leading to an early death. Society puts these people on a pedestal of sorts and is in awe, and this in turn has encouraged arrogance and carelessness among far too many medics. If the system by which medical services effectively leave you little choice as whom you get to listen to your request for assistance with some ailment then you end up stuck with a reaction, wrong or right that becomes the diagnosis - including that there is nothing wrong with you except your mind. It is true that doctors bury their mistakes and in all likelihood it will continue without lessening at all.

[Sqad]

KARL.....LOL.....well you certainly got that off your chest.