Follow up to complaint 22/2

dear mrs wilson
further to my letter of 7/3 and as promised i write detailing the outcome of my investigations. I have now been able to discuss the consultation with dr jee and have read the notes made on your medical records of the consultation of the morning 18/1.

on the morning of the 18/1 dr jee was one of four members of stand at fernside surgery that day. the other three staff were a physotherapist, a steps to wellbeing counsellor and a receptionist. Dr jee was the duty doctor both for heather view and fernside surgery that day which means if an emergency situation arose by a patient or another heathcare colleague Dr jee would need to attend to it immediately, either on the phone or face to face.

you were the third patient on dr jee’s list and unfortunately after about 2 minutes into the consultation Dr ponton, who was working at our main surgery telephoned dr jee regarding an urgent matter. he was aware from our computer system that dr jee was consulting at the time but he felt that it was urgent enough to interrupt her. our protocol is that a doctor is only to be inturrupted by a telephone call if it is extremely urgent and for the doctor to be contacted by electronic messaging system for any other issues. we operate this protocol as we are totally aware of how disconcerting it is for the patient when a consultation is interrupted.

as the only doctor at fern side that morning dr jee was the only persona available to deal with an urgent clinical matter. she answered the phone and spoke to dr ponton briefly. she informed him she would call him back and ended the call and continued the consultation with yourself. when speaking with you it soon became obvious that you had a complex medical history and she needed to ensure that she had all the clinical information on your notes. when hospital letters or letter from other healthcare organisations come into the surgery they are scanned onto the patients notes by reception staff. this is not always done the same day and dr jee left the room to go and check there were no letters waiting to be scanned onto your notes in reception.she did this in order to ensure she had all the information available to her to ensure that she could offer you the best and correct care available. dr jee advised you of this and let the consultation room. dr jee is sorry that her communication regarding the situation was inadequate and made you feel abandoned. this is not howe we want any of our patients to feel when the come to see a doctor or nurse.

Whilst dr jee was in reception she realised that she needed to return the telephone call to dr ponton and wanted to give you her full attention on her return she called dr ponton. unfortunately the telephone call took several minutes and at this point you left the consultation room and fern side surgery. i believe dr jee then followed you out of the building asking you to return to the consultation room which you refused to do so. dr jee then telephoned you to try to explain what happened as asked if you would like to come back and continue the consultation, which you informed her that you would not be coming back to the surgery. dr jee is sorry that her communication regarding the situation was inadequate and made you feel abandoned; this is not how we want any of our patients to feel when the come to see a doctor or nurse.

as mentioned earlier i have checked the consultation records and have conferred with dr ponton and dr jee and i am of the opinion that this is a very unfortunate situation with a doctor trying to attend to several issues in a very busy practice. as previously stated dr jee tried to explain to you why the interruptions we necessary and offers her sincere apologies as this is something that does not normally happen.

in summary, i am sorry that the event of the 18/1 have upset you to the point that you felt that you had to write a letter of complaint. on behalf of the surgery please accept my most sincere apologies for any distress this may have caused you. the unfortunate circumstances around an emergency call coming through to dr jee whilst in the middle of you consultation, i hope is not a frequent occurrence, however i hope you understand that as duty doctor that dy she had a duty of care to contact dr ponton as soon as possible.

once again, please accept my apologies for the distress caused to you on the occasion.