GP and Doctor Negligence

Your General Practitioner (GP) is likely to be your first port of call if you or a member of your family becomes ill.  GPs do not usually have a particular area of subspecialisation (though some may have a particular interest in a particular area of medicine) and have to undergo training that covers all the major branches of medicine.  However, a GP's expertise is in their patient rather than in any individual disease or branch of medicine, and much of a GP's time is spent dealing with family and social matters as well as medical matters. 

Clinical negligence cases against GPs will often involve their failure to do the basics of medicine sufficiently or appropriately rather than anything complex, because they have to be familiar with such a vast array of medicine.  For example, in the clinical negligence context, many cases against GPs involve:

• inadequate history-taking from and/or examination of the patient
• the failure to investigate a patient's problem properly, with appropriate tests
• the failure to make the appropriate referral to a specialist
• failing to appreciate the seriousness of a condition and/or to act promptly enough in administering appropriate treatment

Common examples of missed diagnoses with catastrophic consequences involve conditions such as:

• Meningitis, a life-threatening infection of the lining of the brain (the meninges)
• Hypoglycaemia, a low sugar, which can cause devastating brain damage if not treated promptly
• Asthma, a life-threatening respiratory condition
• Pulmonary embolism, a clot in the lung, which can be fatal but often easily treated
• Myocardial infarction (heart attack), pulmonary oedema (fluid on the lungs) and heart failure, amongst many others.

If you believe you may have a medical negligence claim, please contact the team by email at clinnegenquiries@kingsleynapley.co.uk or by calling +44 (0)20 7814 1200.