Appropriate care was provided by a GP Practice but administration failings led to distress

What happened

Ms A, and her mother Ms B, were newly registered patients at their GP Practice. Ms B had long–term sight and balance problems and she went with her daughter to her new GP. The GP agreed to refer Ms B to a neurologist, however, the referral was delayed as the GP had not received Ms B's records from her previous practice. Ms A complained about this and also the consultation with the GP, and told the Practice that she had accidentally recorded the consultation on a recording machine she had with her at the time. The Practice felt this breached the doctor/patient relationship and removed Ms A and Ms B from its practice list.

What we found

We partly upheld this complaint. The GP had carried out an appropriate and reasonable consultation and correctly decided to refer Ms B to a neurologist. It was also reasonable for the GP to wait until he had received Ms B's previous records before referring her. However, the GP could have been clearer in managing Ms A's and Ms B's expectations about when he would send the referral, but on balance, this was not a failing. Also, although the GP had written a correct prescription for Ms B in an earlier consultation, he had not appropriately recorded his reasoning for this. This was a failing.

The Practice did not follow the steps set out in its contract for removing patients from its Practice list. This is because it had not given Ms A and Ms B a warning to tell them that they were at risk of being removed from the list. This was a failing. We found that these failings caused Ms A and Ms B distress.

Putting it right

The Practice apologised to Ms A and Ms B for the distress caused. It also put in place an action plan to reduce the likelihood of a similar situation happening with other patients.