Decision Report 201301666

Summary

After Mr C was discharged from hospital following an operation on his bladder, he complained that his GP failed to visit him to review his wound or to provide him with treatment for a urine infection.

The clinical records showed that when Mr C contacted the practice, the GP had asked a district nurse to visit him to dress his wound. When the nurse attended, she noted that Mr C was feeling well. She visited again a couple of days later and noted that he was still improving. When the GP called him six days later, Mr C reported that he was still feeling well, but when the GP mentioned that a urine infection had been noted after an initial post-discharge district nurse's visit, Mr C became upset. Two days later Mr C contacted the practice to complain of significant pain and cloudy urine. He was then prescribed antibiotics.

We took independent advice on this case from one of our medical advisers, who is a qualified GP. He said that it was appropriate for Mr C's wound to be dealt with by district nursing staff. He also advised that it was reasonable, given the continued improvement in Mr C's condition, that the practice did not initially prescribe antibiotics for the urine infection. As the care provided by the GP was reasonable, we did not uphold the complaint. We did, however, make a recommendation to ensure that in future patients are kept fully informed about test results.

Recommendations

We recommended that the practice:

• review the way test results are communicated to patients, either by contacting them directly to provide the results or by requesting that patients contact the practice within a set timescale to obtain their results.