Decision report 201101150

Summary
Mr C had requested a home visit early in 2010 which was refused. In December 2010 he contacted the practice by email to ask why the visit had been refused and to ask for a copy of the practice policy on home visits.

The practice manager responded five days later by email explaining the policy on home visits. The final paragraph of the emailed letter stated that Mr C's previous email had 'sullied' the patient / doctor relationship and Mr C was to be removed from the list. Mr C complained that the decision to remove him from the GP list without prior warning was unreasonable. We found that it was not appropriate for the practice to have taken the action they did without first giving Mr C a warning and we, therefore, upheld his complaint.

Recommendations
We recommended that the practice:
• apologise to Mr C for the failings identified in this report.