Parents of law student, 26, who died of meningitis after four remote doctor appointments in three weeks say they hope this week’s inquest will provide answers and raise awareness of need to be seen face-to-face
Parents of law student, 26, who died of meningitis after four remote doctor appointments in three weeks say they hope this week’s inquest will provide answers and raise awareness of need to be seen face-to-face
11 comments
When was this? Was it when that mild flu was going around and everything shut down for two years? This man should still be alive
Don’t dare suggest to the Reddit community that we should have done one single thing different during the pandemic. Lockdowns and ludicrous GP policies like this were worth it all.
/s
GP appointments could have been held outdoors to minimize COVID risk. It didn’t need to be 100% phone consults. And it shouldn’t ever be that way again.
I had meningitis few years ago. I thought I was going to die, I was that ill. Poor guy I am really shocked no one wanted to see him. I went from mild headache in the afternoon to loosing relocation of 3 days from the very next day.
There was a case of a 30yo in Italy that was not diagnosed with meningitis and died last week. And she went to doctors in person and even in hospital. Hard to detect sometimes but I think doctors should be more careful and take more Time to draw a correct to diagnosis. I understand hospitals and practices are overwhelmed everywhere in the world but these deaths can be prevented!
How on earth could they imagine of doing this over the phone? It’s a disgrace, I understand the lockdown and all but now it’s over and still many GPs only work over phone/email as it’s so convenient
PRE COVID: My doctors receptionist booked in a phone appointment for a rash on my face. Had to try and explain it all over the phone at which point the doctor said this is pointless I better come in.
This system is a joke and COVID made it worse. Online calls have their place but nothing will ever replace face to face. So much more can be conveyed by physically laying lies and hearing someone.
GP surgeries need to stop being run like businesses with cost cutting exercises that remove the human aspect.
This guy really didn’t look 26, did he have other chronic illnesses?
Remote / digital consultations has been the direction of travel for a long time before the pandemic. Covid simply accelerated it. It’s what the government want as they see it as more efficient.
At the end of the day, we have a substandard health service, not fit for use, that is run, for some reason I’ve never quite understood, by politicians.
If you want decent treatment, go private or go abroad.
The government literally told GPs they had to move off from face to face to more telephone and online appointments, the idea being more patients will be seen
Quite frankly most GPs I know would prefer to go back to face to face and 15 minute appointments not the 10 minute appointments they have now, plus 50 online consultations and 10 phone calls to do in spare time
This case was heartbreaking. How they didn’t connect the dots is unbelievable. It’s quite horrific when you listen to the phone call he made when he was really really ill and they just brushed him off like he had a common cold.
I am honestly scared if me or my loved ones ever get ill enough to require urgent care. I put off going to the GP now because I feel like nothing is urgent enough and appointments, especially in-person ones, are like gold dust.
3 weeks ago I had sudden hearing loss in both ears following some flu-type illness and I kept putting off calling the GP, hoping it would go away. I tried home remedies for a week and it didn’t do a whole lot. 3 weeks on and it’s about 95% better but it was likely an ear infection in one or both ears which could’ve cleared up in a matter of days if I’d seen a doctor. Instead, it caused me over a week of anxiety as my hearing was so poor for the first week and a half and I work in a supermarket and I would get stressed when I couldn’t hear customers that I was serving at the till.