Are failures to investigate negligent doctors increasing the risk of more medical negligence?
09 | 02 | 12
The General Medical Council (GMC) has been
criticised for the process undertaken when doctors are suspected of
providing negligent treatment. The process has been scrutinized
following the recently reported death of a lady at Luton and
Dunstable Hospital Trust.
The lady had chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease, a long-term lung condition. She visited her GP with a
suspected chest infection and was admitted to hospital where she
could be given stronger, intravenous antibiotics. Seven days after
being admitted the patient died from a pulmonary embolism, which is
a blood clot of the lungs.
The family of the patient discovered that she
had only received the recommended intravenous antibiotics and
standard blood tests five days after her admittance to hospital. In
addition, she was not given blood thinning medication to help
prevent blood clots, despite her age and lung condition. Doctors at
the hospital had also issued a “do not resuscitate” order without
discussing it with the family, which meant that as the patient lay
dying neither the doctors or nurses intervened to save her
life.
The catastrophic nature of these incidents led
to the family issuing a complaint to the Luton and Dunstable
Hospital Trust on the grounds of medical negligence. The trust and
doctors involved denied any responsibility or wrong doing.
A complaint was later made to the GMC, who
initially upheld it and recommended the doctor in charge of the
patient’s care face a Fitness to Practise hearing. The hearing was
later cancelled after GMC medical advisors found the case was not
strong enough to proceed.
The GMC have been criticized in recent years
for being too lenient and acting in the best interest of the
profession and not the patients. This case further highlights the
growing risk of medical negligence in UK hospitals because doctors
are rarely being punished for negligent treatment.
Stephen Webber,
Partner and Head of the top ranked
Medical Negligence team at Hugh James
solicitors acts for patients who have suffered medical negligence
from all over the UK. Stephen says, “Of the 7000 complaints to
the GMC last year, only 17 per cent were fully investigated. More
and more cases of medical negligence emerge each year, surely this
should prompt the GMC to look at its practices and modernise its
approach to ensure it is acting in the best interests of patients.
I am positive if this were to happen then this would reduce medical
negligence in the future”.