So What Did the Surgery Have to Say?

It’s been about a month since I posted my letter of complaint on this old blog of mine. It’s got quite a few hints since then, so it’s about time I told you what my local GP surgery said in reply.

But before I do that here’s a little reminder of why I sent it to them. You see, after everything that I’ve been through in the past year I considered not bothering, but when their mental health nurse said that perhaps I would get some form of closure about the way they treated me if I complained.

So what did they say? Did they accept responsibility for the misdiagnosis? Did the reception team accept any responsibility for the way they treated me?

Did they fuck.

At first the practice manager was very receptive about what I’d said, but having investigated the issue further she drew the following conclusions.

Firstly, while the GP who initially treated me was sorry for what I’d been through since I first saw her she didn’t offer any apologies for the misdiagnosis. She claimed I was told why I wasn’t prescribed antibiotics to begin with. I questioned the practice manager about this, pointing out that while this may be the case I was very ill at the time and that if she had told me it’s likely that I may have forgotten. Further to that point I asked her for the reason I wasn’t given any antibiotics. She never replied to that particular question.

With regards to the way the reception team handled my situation her stance was very disappointing. Having listened to all of the conversations I had with the reception team she was of the opinion that even though they caused me a great deal of distress, adding to the great deal of pain I was in, ultimately that didn’t matter because I managed to get the appointments when I needed them. She also couldn’t do anything about two of the people who took the phone calls because they no longer worked for the practice.

At the end of the day, even though they’ve put the practice’s services at my disposal during this extended period of ill health, ultimately they’re not taking any responsibility for the way I was treated by the reception team and for the misdiagnosis, an action which led to me having to spend a combined total of four weeks-plus in hospital, and having to undergo several procedures and an operation.

Do I feel like I’ve had any form of closure with this? No, I don’t.

Am I going to take this further? What’s the point? A simple apology on their behalf would have probably done me the world of good, but I’m not going to dwell on that fact.

I will end this with something I was told a while ago: the NHS is a wonderful service full of dedicated people who go above and beyond the call of duty. A shame it’s being ruined by the pencil pushers.