Child died after GP refused to see her

[Osem]

A five-year-old girl died of an asthma attack after being turned away by a GP because she arrived minutes late for her appointment.
Ellie-May Clark and her mother, from Newport, were told to return the next morning by Dr Joanne Rowe, a specialist in safeguarding children.
The little girl died five hours later, on 26 January 2015.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-s...wales-39095656

An inquiry by the Aneurin Bevan Health Board, which controls the surgery, also found Dr Rowe had "failed to make any clinical assessment".
The health board's report said Ms Clark and Ellie-May arrived eight minutes late, contrary to the family's claim it was four minutes.
The confidential report said reception staff rang through to Dr Rowe, but she shouted back at a receptionist "something like 'No I'm not seeing her, she's late'."
Dr Rowe claimed she was with another patient when she turned them away.
But the health board checked computer records at the surgery which showed the doctor did not see any patients between 16:55 and 17:20 after a number of cancellations that day.

The Serious Concern report also said reception staff were afraid of Dr Rowe, who was known for "repeated angry outbursts"...

... "There is a consensus that Dr Rowe is unapproachable and volatile. Many staff reported being afraid to challenge her decisions or seek a second opinion from one of the other doctors."
The report concludes that it was Dr Rowe's usual practice to refuse to see patients who arrived late for either routine or emergency appointments.
After being suspended on full pay for six months, Dr Rowe has since joined the Cloughmore Surgery in Splott, Cardiff.

What an awful and entirely unnecessary episode! I must say I find the GP's punishment inexplicable given the false claims and 'repeated outbursts'. I don't think I'd want her to be seeing any of my loved ones!

What I can't understand is why the child wasn't taken to A&E or an ambulance called immediately after the GP's refusal? There may be a good reason for that but I can't see it.

So tragic.

[denphone]

Absolutely no surprise very sadly Osem as in all professions there is good and bad as l myself experienced in the past before my main primary diagnosis as several doctors did not believe me and one even called me a malingerer and praise be to god l am still here thankfully.

[weenie]

In my opinion no child should should ever be turned away ever late or not.
RIP little one

[denphone]

Originally Posted by weenie

In my opinion no child should should ever be turned away ever late or not.
RIP little one

Her parents will have to carry this terrible grief for the rest of their lives.

[Kabaal]

8 minutes? It's rare my doctor even gets round to you within 30mins of the appointment time.

I'm lucky if i see my GP within an hour after my appointment time but he's a damn good GP that i know will give me as long as i need on the rare occasion i visit him. I don't know the details of this incident but I've witnessed how frustrating it is for our surgery to deal with late or no show patients and sooner or later some GP's will snap they are still people with the same reactions as all of us.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by RizzyKing

I'm lucky if i see my GP within an hour after my appointment time but he's a damn good GP that i know will give me as long as i need on the rare occasion i visit him. I don't know the details of this incident but I've witnessed how frustrating it is for our surgery to deal with late or no show patients and sooner or later some GP's will snap they are still people with the same reactions as all of us.

Yes it must be annoying but this GP evidently had a habit of 'snapping' and the child was at high risk and being seen for an emergency appointment not something routine. She was free and available when they arrived and could have seen them. Not sure how much else they could reasonably have done except call an ambulance or go to A&E sooner than they eventually did.

We don't have all the facts here and in cases like this we need them to come to a conclusion. We have no idea if this was a one off or if the family routinely made appointments and turned up late or not at all and we have very little to judge the GP on. On the face of it it looks bad and tragic but that happens often and the facts come out and a wholey different picture is seen. From my own personal experience in over thirty years of NHS involvement I've never met a GP that was in it for the cash they have always been decent people with a deep desire to do whats best for their patients maybe I've been lucky.

Anyone with kids will know how hard it can be to stay on time with your daily schedule,add to that an emergency doctors appointment for a sick child and it just gets harder .My sympathies are entirely with the family here .No way should that child have left the surgery without some form of assessment .If the staff knew how bad tempered the doctor was then they should have asked a more amenable doctor to have a look instead of just dismissing her.In my opinion the entire surgery is at fault not just the doctor

[Osem]

Originally Posted by RizzyKing

We don't have all the facts here and in cases like this we need them to come to a conclusion. We have no idea if this was a one off or if the family routinely made appointments and turned up late or not at all and we have very little to judge the GP on. On the face of it it looks bad and tragic but that happens often and the facts come out and a wholey different picture is seen. From my own personal experience in over thirty years of NHS involvement I've never met a GP that was in it for the cash they have always been decent people with a deep desire to do whats best for their patients maybe I've been lucky.

We all have sympathies with our GPs and NHS staff at times. Having said that I can't remember the last time I saw any medical practitioner anywhere near on time and that includes our son's numerous appointments which we have to attend.

What we do have here, however, is an official report's conclusions about the GP, her long standing attitude problem and the fact that, in spite of what she claimed, she wasn't seeing other patients at the time so could have seen the little girl. There's no doubt about any of that. Even if there were issues with the parent's prior attendance record (and there's nothing to suggest it), the 5 year old girl was certainly not responsible for any of it was she. In the final analysis, they were less than 10 mins late, the GP was free and the child could/should have been seen or at least the family advised to go to A&E or call an ambulance. We don't know why the latter wasn't done more promptly but that decision, or anything else for that matter, doesn't validate the GP's appalling behaviour.