Hopefully the GMC doesn’t up its fees to fight all these legal battles, they’d never dip into their investment portfolio to fund them…
A “doctor” diagnosing a woman with anxiety even though it’s clearly something else…
Not surprised but very disappointed and slightly scared that this is still happening and that fake doctors exist
In hospital, if someone in uniform greets/comes in to talk to you and says “I’m part of the medical team”, but you cannot make out their lanyard or a badge, ask which member of the medical team they are…
In a GP surgery, they should have name badges on with their job title. Never feel ashamed to ask and double check that you are speaking with a doctor.
It’s awful that the occurrences which have happened make us have to double check these things. Should we have to? No. But it’s in our own best interests and for our own safety given the circumstances
We had a PA misdiagnosis my toddler with a chest infection when was tonsillitis and was given wrong treatment. He deteriorated that night and we ended up in hospital via ambulance until seen by an actual doctor and given right medicine.
I will be never seen a PA again but the issue is when everything busy, it’s likely see a PA or wait hours.
They should be scrapped though.
One of these misdiagnosed me as having pulled a muscle when I had 2 pulmonary emboli. They are dangerous.
Also once me and my brother got seen, both with nasty chest infections. They saw my brother, said he needed antibiotics. Then saw me straight afterwards (we were both in the room at once), looked in my throat and said ‘she doesn’t need any, it’s a virus’. My mum said that actually they’ve got the same thing, obviously, so either they’ve both got a virus or both got a bacterial infection. She looked in my throat again and said ‘oh yeah, she does need antibiotics’. Absolute joke. At least that one was less life threatening.
Not letting the partner in is weird and a perhaps not obvious but nevertheless significant red flag. A clinician should at worst be neutral about a punter being accompanied, but at best they’re an invaluable source of collateral history. There are only very select circumstances where barring an accomplice would be warranted (where there’s a suspicion of coercion/control and teenaged children who might not open up in front of parents spring to mind). Not to mention, it really should be up to the patient whether they’re accompanied. Whenever an accomplice asks if they’re “allowed” in, I tell them it’s up to the patient, not me.
Also, something doesn’t add up here. Prescribing in primary care is predominantly done electronically. And when it isn’t, the prescription is generated from the patient’s record which is linked to a smart card unique to the prescriber. Prescribing is only enabled for people who are legally allowed to prescribe, which would not include a PA. I might hand write a script maybe once or twice a year for weird drugs that aren’t in the electronic formulary. It’s incredibly rare.
What that means in turn is that this PA could not have issued a prescription for a drug that with hindsight might have made Emily worse (certain anxiety medications can impair respiratory function) unless they either forged a paper prescription or if it was signed off by somebody with prescribing privileges (i.e. almost certainly an actual doctor).
For those unaware, to become a Physician’s Associate you need a Bachelor’s of Science and a 2-years Masters in Physician Associate Studies. It’s essentially 2 years of health training then you’re let out into the world, often functioning at a similar level to resident (junior) doctors. In GP practices they regularly see patients independently with little-to-no input from a doctor.
Myself, as a student doctor, probably won’t be given the same level of independence until after 6/7 years of schooling and training.
They just simply aren’t as learned. They might be perfectly smart and capable, but you cannot fit all the medical knowledge into 2 years. Hell, you can barely fit into 5 years. It’s dangerous.
And I’ll be frank, most of the PA students I know are those who could not get into medical school because it’s too competitive, or simply didn’t want to do such a long degree. The expedited nature of the course is what draws them.
Ah, anaesthetistsunited, who else. From my own experience I’d say it could happen with doctors too. My son was misdiagnosed with eye allergy by A&E reg when it was an infection – ended up in ophthalmic intensive care next day on antibiotics every two hours! My wife seen by gynae reg who scared her to death so I brought her to another hospital where Consultant after short procedure found nothing serious ( all that happened few years ago.) And I’m not even starting about psychiatry.
Only way imo is smell a rat and ask for a second opinion if you can. Saying that we as a family encounter a lot of a good doctors too but mistakes could happen with anyone.
8 comments
Hopefully the GMC doesn’t up its fees to fight all these legal battles, they’d never dip into their investment portfolio to fund them…
A “doctor” diagnosing a woman with anxiety even though it’s clearly something else…
Not surprised but very disappointed and slightly scared that this is still happening and that fake doctors exist
In hospital, if someone in uniform greets/comes in to talk to you and says “I’m part of the medical team”, but you cannot make out their lanyard or a badge, ask which member of the medical team they are…
In a GP surgery, they should have name badges on with their job title. Never feel ashamed to ask and double check that you are speaking with a doctor.
It’s awful that the occurrences which have happened make us have to double check these things. Should we have to? No. But it’s in our own best interests and for our own safety given the circumstances
We had a PA misdiagnosis my toddler with a chest infection when was tonsillitis and was given wrong treatment. He deteriorated that night and we ended up in hospital via ambulance until seen by an actual doctor and given right medicine.
I will be never seen a PA again but the issue is when everything busy, it’s likely see a PA or wait hours.
They should be scrapped though.
One of these misdiagnosed me as having pulled a muscle when I had 2 pulmonary emboli. They are dangerous.
Also once me and my brother got seen, both with nasty chest infections. They saw my brother, said he needed antibiotics. Then saw me straight afterwards (we were both in the room at once), looked in my throat and said ‘she doesn’t need any, it’s a virus’. My mum said that actually they’ve got the same thing, obviously, so either they’ve both got a virus or both got a bacterial infection. She looked in my throat again and said ‘oh yeah, she does need antibiotics’. Absolute joke. At least that one was less life threatening.
Not letting the partner in is weird and a perhaps not obvious but nevertheless significant red flag. A clinician should at worst be neutral about a punter being accompanied, but at best they’re an invaluable source of collateral history. There are only very select circumstances where barring an accomplice would be warranted (where there’s a suspicion of coercion/control and teenaged children who might not open up in front of parents spring to mind). Not to mention, it really should be up to the patient whether they’re accompanied. Whenever an accomplice asks if they’re “allowed” in, I tell them it’s up to the patient, not me.
Also, something doesn’t add up here. Prescribing in primary care is predominantly done electronically. And when it isn’t, the prescription is generated from the patient’s record which is linked to a smart card unique to the prescriber. Prescribing is only enabled for people who are legally allowed to prescribe, which would not include a PA. I might hand write a script maybe once or twice a year for weird drugs that aren’t in the electronic formulary. It’s incredibly rare.
What that means in turn is that this PA could not have issued a prescription for a drug that with hindsight might have made Emily worse (certain anxiety medications can impair respiratory function) unless they either forged a paper prescription or if it was signed off by somebody with prescribing privileges (i.e. almost certainly an actual doctor).
For those unaware, to become a Physician’s Associate you need a Bachelor’s of Science and a 2-years Masters in Physician Associate Studies. It’s essentially 2 years of health training then you’re let out into the world, often functioning at a similar level to resident (junior) doctors. In GP practices they regularly see patients independently with little-to-no input from a doctor.
Myself, as a student doctor, probably won’t be given the same level of independence until after 6/7 years of schooling and training.
They just simply aren’t as learned. They might be perfectly smart and capable, but you cannot fit all the medical knowledge into 2 years. Hell, you can barely fit into 5 years. It’s dangerous.
And I’ll be frank, most of the PA students I know are those who could not get into medical school because it’s too competitive, or simply didn’t want to do such a long degree. The expedited nature of the course is what draws them.
Ah, anaesthetistsunited, who else. From my own experience I’d say it could happen with doctors too. My son was misdiagnosed with eye allergy by A&E reg when it was an infection – ended up in ophthalmic intensive care next day on antibiotics every two hours! My wife seen by gynae reg who scared her to death so I brought her to another hospital where Consultant after short procedure found nothing serious ( all that happened few years ago.) And I’m not even starting about psychiatry.
Only way imo is smell a rat and ask for a second opinion if you can. Saying that we as a family encounter a lot of a good doctors too but mistakes could happen with anyone.
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