Decision Report 201404869

Summary

Ms C complained that her mother (Mrs A) had not been provided with a reasonable standard of treatment by her medical practice. She felt the practice had unreasonably handled much of Mrs A's contact over the phone and, following hospital investigations and tests, that the practice had failed to take the appropriate steps.

We considered whether Mrs A's treatment was reasonable in the circumstances at the time. We took independent advice from one of our medical adviers, who explained that managing contact over the phone is common practice, and that there was nothing to indicate it had been done unreasonably in this case. Our adviser also said that it was the hospital doctor's responsibility to explain hospital test results and, in any event, the practice had not misinterpreted hospital correspondence as Ms C felt they had.

Although we took Ms C's concerns into account and recognised her strength of feeling, the medical advice we received was that the records did not indicate that Mrs A's treatment had been unreasonable. We did not consider the evidence indicated that Mrs A's practice had failed to provide her with a reasonable standard of medical treatment, and so we did not uphold this complaint.