Decision Report 201508290

Summary

Ms C, who works for an advocacy and support agency, complained on behalf of Miss A that a locum GP working at her GP practice inappropriately prescribed her antibiotic medication which she was allergic to. Miss A suffered a severe allergic reaction to the medication, resulting in an emergency hospital attendance that evening. Ms C also complained that, when Miss A returned to the practice the following day, the GP failed to appropriately examine her allergy rash.

We took independent medical advice and found that the medical records noted that Miss A had previously had a reaction to the medication. As it should not, therefore, have been prescribed, we upheld the complaint. However, it was noted that the GP had already acknowledged and apologised for the prescribing error, which we were assured was down to human error and not systemic in nature. We did not, therefore, make any recommendations in this regard.

In relation to the subsequent attendance, the adviser noted that Miss A had already been examined and treated at the hospital the previous night and that a detailed examination was not required. We did not uphold this aspect of the complaint.

Ms C also complained that the practice had not responded appropriately to the complaint. We noted that the practice passed the correspondence to the GP (who was by then working at another practice) to respond to directly. This resulted in delays. We concluded that the practice should have retained ownership of the complaint and managed it in line with their complaints process. We upheld this aspect of the complaint.

Recommendations

We recommended that the practice:

• write to Ms A and apologise for their failure to properly handle her complaint.