GP failed to give accurate explanation for deregistering patient

What happened

Mr and Mrs G complained to the General Medical Council about their GP. The complaint was not upheld. Mr and Mrs G continued to be unhappy and considered that the GP was not competent and should undergo further training.

The Practice partners held a meeting in light of Mr and Mrs G's concerns and decided that the relationship between the Practice and Mr and Mrs G had broken down and that it would deregister them as patients.

The Practice wrote to Mr and Mrs G and explained its decision. But it added that the partners' decision was also made as a result of a specific incident which occurred in the Practice waiting room. This was when Mrs G was overheard by staff calling the GP incompetent and suggesting she should be sacked.

Mrs G complained to us that the Practice's response was inappropriate and inaccurate and the decision to deregister her and her husband was unreasonable.

What we found

We partly upheld this complaint. We were satisfied that the decision to deregister Mr and Mrs G was reasonable since a clinician could not be expected to provide care to a patient who has no faith in his or her ability.

The Practice's explanation of why Mr and Mrs G were deregistered wrongly relied upon witness testimony of an incident that occurred in the Practice's waiting room. We established that in fact the incident occurred ten days after the Practice partners had decided to deregister Mr and Mrs G.

Putting it right

The Practice apologised to Mr and Mrs G for the inaccurate explanation, and explained how it would make sure that responses to complaints are based on evidence in the future.