Decision Report 201508578

When it was originally published on 15 February 2017, this case referred to a medical practice in the Highland NHS Board area. This was incorrect, and should have read a medical practice in the Grampian NHS Board area. This was due to an administrative error which we have now corrected, and we apologise for any inconvenience that this has caused.

We have put measures in place to help avoid recurrence of this issue.

Summary

Mrs C complained about the care and treatment provided to her father (Mr A) by the practice. She said that the care had been poorly organised and gave specific examples of what she believed was a substandard examination of Mr A by a GP and a failure to follow up on blood test results. Mrs C also said the practice had insisted on some care being provided by the practice nurse, whom she said was not competent. Mrs C felt the practice's response to her complaint had also been inaccurate. Mrs C believed that had the care Mr A received been of a higher standard, he may have been able to undergo treatment before his cancer became terminal.

We took independent medical advice. We found that Mr A's examination had failed to identify a condition which merited urgent referral. We therefore upheld this aspect of Mrs C's complaint. This failure had not, however, had any impact on Mr A's prognosis as the condition was unrelated to Mr A's cancer. The other aspects of Mr A's care were, however, reasonable.

We also took independent nursing advice. The adviser said that the actions of the practice nurse were adequately documented and there was no evidence of incompetency.

We found that while Mr A did not receive a reasonable standard of examination from the practice on one occasion, in other respects his care, including his nursing care, was reasonable. The practice's complaint response was detailed and provided a full explanation of Mr A's care and showed the practice had reflected carefully on the actions they had taken. We therefore did not uphold these aspects of Mrs C's complaint.

Recommendations

We recommended that the practice:

• apologise to Mrs C for the failings identified during this investigation.