Decision Report 201504218

Summary

Mrs C was removed from the treatment list of her GP practice following a difficult visit to the practice. Her husband (Mr C) complained about this and Mr and Mrs C were invited to a meeting to discuss the investigation. At the meeting they felt that no investigation had been undertaken and subsequently complained to us. The reasons the practice gave us for removing Mrs C from their treatment list did not meet the relevant criteria in legislation, policy or guidance for the immediate removal of a patient from a treatment list and we could see no other evidence that immediate removal was warranted. We saw no evidence that Mr C's complaints were dealt with in line with the NHS Scotland complaints procedure. As a result, we upheld both complaints.

Recommendations

We recommended that the practice:

• apologise to Mrs C for unreasonably removing her from their treatment list;
• review their policy for removal of patients to ensure it reflects the relevant regulations and General Medical Council guidance;
• ensure all staff are aware of the revised policy and are trained in managing difficult and challenging behaviour and in particular de-escalation techniques;
• apologise to Mrs and Mr C for not responding to the letter of complaint in line with the NHS Scotland complaints procedure; and
• ensure that staff with responsibility for responding to complaints are aware of the detail of the NHS Scotland complaints policy and related guidance.