Hospital trust made reasonable diagnosis

What happened

Mr C complained that the Trust wrongly diagnosed him as having suffered a seizure without any evidence. He said this was because of questionable information in his medical records from an earlier appointment. Mr C complained that no tests were carried out and no other diagnoses were considered. He said because of this, the DVLA took his driving licence away for a year.

What we found

The Trust made an appropriate diagnosis. We found no evidence that the seizure was diagnosed because of information relating to the earlier appointment. We did not uphold the complaint.

However, the doctor did not record all aspects of his discussions with Mr C at the earlier appointment. In particular he failed to remind Mr C to contact the DVLA because of suspected partial seizures. We upheld this complaint.

Putting it right

We reminded the Trust of the importance of records reflecting discussions with patients and also reminding patients to report any episodes of decreased consciousness to the DVLA.