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Case ref:201101964
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Date:April 2012
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Body:Fife NHS Board
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Sector:Health
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Outcome:Some upheld, recommendations
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Subject:clinical treatment; diagnosis
Summary
Mr C attended his GP, complaining of blurred vision. Two days later, he attended again with the same symptoms. The GP telephoned the hospital to ask for an appointment to be provided more quickly and was told Mr C would be seen as soon as possible.
Just over a month later, Mr C saw a consultant ophthalmologist who could not find anything wrong. Mr C questioned this and was told that the consultant could send him for a scan. Mr C attended for a scan three weeks later. The following week, the consultant telephoned and said that the results of the scan showed Mr C had suffered a stroke and urgently needed to attend the stroke clinic. Mr C was dissatisfied with the consultant's attitude and was unhappy that it took over nine weeks to diagnose that he had suffered a stroke.
After taking advice from one of our medical advisers, we found that Mr C's symptoms were not typical of a stroke and that the consultant had carried out an appropriate assessment. We did, however, uphold his complaint that there was a delay in the board providing him with an ophthalmology appointment after the GP asked for Mr C to be seen more urgently.
Recommendation
We recommended that the board:
• apologise to Mr C for the failure to act on the second GP referral.