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Home > Publications > Selected Cases > Selected Investigations Completed December 2002March 2003 > Case no. E.2469/00-01
Complaint against a GP in the Blackpool Primary Care Trust area
Summary of Case
The Ombudsman did not uphold Mr D’s complaint that his GP had failed to address adequately the recommendations of an independent review panel. Mr D had attended his GP’s surgery to ask to be prescribed a new drug to help him stop smoking. The GP told Mr D that he was not yet able to prescribe the drug. Mr D discovered that day that a licence had been issued for the drug, and that some GPs were prescribing it. Mr D telephoned the surgery and an acrimonious discussion with the GP ensued; as a result, Mr D was removed from the GP’s list for being verbally abusive. Mr D complained to the GP but received no reply and so requested an independent review of his complaint, which was agreed to by the health authority’s convener. The independent review went on to recommend that the GP improve his communication with his patients; his attitude to smoking cessation; his approach to angry patients; and the handling of complaints by the practice. After the independent review the GP wrote to Mr D to explain his caution in prescribing the drug, and to apologise for not making himself clear at the consultation, but Mr D remained dissatisfied. The Ombudsman established that the remedies recommended by the independent review were largely in place at the time of Mr D’s complaint to the Ombudsman, and that following the issue of the independent review report, improvements had been made. These improvements had not, unfortunately, been communicated by the GP to any party to Mr D’s complaint. The Ombudsman recommended that the GP take the earliest opportunity to write to Mr D, and the PCT which has taken over some of the responsibilities of the former health authority, informing them of the actions taken.
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