GP Practice removed entire family from its list without warning

What happened

Mr B complained about aspects of his care and treatment, but mainly about the Practice not giving him access to his blood results.

He also complained on behalf of his wife about her care after bariatric surgery, an operation to the stomach or digestive tract to help you lose weight.

The family said it was almost impossible to make appointments at the Practice, and raised concerns about the Practice manager being their GP's wife. They considered this added an element of bias to the GP's duty of care.

Mr B also complained about the fact that he, his wife, and their adult son and daughter were all removed from the Practice. He thought this was as a result of him having raised complaints.

What we found

We partly upheld this complaint. All the medical care and treatment provided to both Mr and Mrs B was reasonable.

There was nothing to suggest that the family struggled to make appointments, and we did not find any evidence of bias in the Practice's provision of care.

The Practice took reasonable steps and followed its policy in removing Mr B from the Practice list. This was not as a result of Mr B making a complaint, but it said Mr B had displayed aggressive behaviour.

The Practice said Mr and Mrs B's family always appeared unhappy with the care and service it provided. It said that it removed the family with great regret because the doctor/patient relationship had irrevocably broken down.

However, it was unreasonable and outside policy for the Practice to have removed the entire family from its list, as it had not first given each family member a written warning.

We saw that Mr B wrote complaints letters as far back as 2011 but the first time the Practice responded was via a local resolution meeting in winter 2013.

Putting it right

The Practice apologised to Mr B for the failure to respond to his earlier complaints and paid him £150 compensation. It also apologised to Mr B's wife and children for the impact of the unreasonable removal. The Practice also reviewed its removal policy and complaints policy and reminded staff of what was expected of them.