# NHS Cock up



## Zozzer (Aug 13, 2006)

Last Thursday my 17 year old nephen was in agony with severe pain coming from a lump at the bottom of his spine. So his mum tried to get an appointment with his GP. The receptionist said, "If he's in pain you should take him to the hospital walk in centre."

A trip to hospital resulted in a quick look no touch diagnosis of "It's muscular, take these pain killers and if it's no worse in a week come back"

Yesterday (Sunday) he came to our house and I could see the pain in his eyes and he was finding difficult sit down. We phoned his mum at work and said we thought he should see the " On Call Doctor at a local heath clinic as he should be in so much pain. This doctor diagnosed a very large abcess which burst when pressed and told him to go to Wigan Infirmary immediately and he would phone through to expect him. That posed a problem, my wife had not taken her purse with her and had no money for the car park so a family friend had to do a 15mile round trip to bring some money Upon arrival he was assesed by a surgeon who told him he would have to stay in and they would operate today to remove the parts of the absess they could not get at which was very large and deep. He was told he was very lucky, as had he left it much longer and it had burst internally it could have been life threatening. 

To say we are angry is an understatement.


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## DTPCHEMICALS (Jul 24, 2006)

A complaint to the chairman of the Trust to which you first visited.

Not the first and certainly it will not be the last.


Dave p


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## Terrorgram (Jun 14, 2010)

Pilonidal abcesses are common and inspection of the affected area usually picks them up. Letter to the trust chairman seems reasonable as well as the director/GP at the walk in centre.


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## Penquin (Oct 15, 2007)

Not good news at all, hope that he is well treated from now on and that th problem will be resolved quickly. 

I would agree with the others who suggest a complaint in writing to the walk in centre and the Trust. Sadly mistakes do happen but at the very least an apology is due and a little reminder now may prevent a similar situation happening for some other person.

Doctor's are not infallible but they must be willing to amit when they do not know rather than "it's muscular" or "it's a virus" which seems to be trotted out rather frequently........

Dave


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## strod (Sep 2, 2007)

Terrorgram said:


> Pilonidal abcesses are common and inspection of the affected area usually picks them up. Letter to the trust chairman seems reasonable as well as the director/GP at the walk in centre.


I suffered from one of these in my early twenties, and can confirm it was not fun at all! Pain from base of spine region, difficulty in sitting, flu like symptoms (hot/cold shivers etc). Sat in as hot a bath as I could and gave it a good squeeze, filled the water with what looked like hundreds of translucent worms of puss.

Had to thave the abcess "dug out" at hospital, then it has to heal from the inside out - internal dressing with a wick hanging out.

Apparently quite common in hairy males, of which I am one!!


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## annetony (May 1, 2005)

I hope you do make a complaint--he obviously wasn't examined thoroughly enough--or they would have spotted it

The NHS let us use a faulty trolley which caused my broken shoulder--I have been off work since 26th April after having it plated and pinned (no complaints on the treatment) needless to say it wouldn't have happened if the trolley was not cock eyed

Thats the NHS for you 

Anne


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## thieawin (Jun 7, 2006)

I know ambulance chasers are not popular but this was negligent. Fortunately the claim is small, assuming a full recovery. A no touch examination in such circumstances does not meet the the duty of care and is probably unprofessional (ie GMC complainable)

You won't get an apology (its considered an admission) so see a no win no fee specialist legal services provider


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## Chausson (Oct 17, 2006)

There was a case on the news the other day where a chap had a lump at the base of his spine, he was told "Muscular", it was an abcess. they showed a picture of him before, he was a collage lecturer fit as anyone, now he is a veritable cabbage totally paralysed, he was awarded over 750 grand I'm sure he would prefer his health.


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## Zozzer (Aug 13, 2006)

Chausson said:


> There was a case on the news the other day where a chap had a lump at the base of his spine, he was told "Muscular", it was an abcess. they showed a picture of him before, he was a collage lecturer fit as anyone, now he is a veritable cabbage totally paralysed, he was awarded over 750 grand I'm sure he would prefer his health.


I sure he would, as in deed anyone would.

Fortunately, my nephew is making recovery after the operation to remove as much of the abcess as possible. He been told he will need to return to hospital in three months to see if the abcess has started growing again.

Just for the record, at no stage were the family thinking of sueing for damages, but are in the process of letting our feeling known to the Clincal Manager of the Doctors Surgery, and to the Chairman of the Wigan Health Care Trust, We feel the doctor at the "Leigh Walk In Centre" should be severely repremanded for his lack of proffesional judgement in wrongly diagnosing the patience. And we would hope a record of the incident be placed on his personell file should it similar misdiagnosis occur in the future.


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## Rosbotham (May 4, 2008)

If you haven't already been in contact, can I suggest PALS? They provide a good communication channel to the hospital management.

Paul


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