After emailing a general practitioner’s office asking patients not to call, a woman whose brother passed away has warned that more deaths could occur if immediate adjustments are not made.
Allan Hamilton, 51, struggled to breathe when he emailed The Pike Practice on November 14. He had been told not to call his GP on previous visits.
But staff at surgery took three days to respond to the teacher, who was found dead at his home in Mossley, Greater Manchester, two days later on November 19.
A post-mortem found he had died of acute pneumonia and ischemic heart disease. Senior coroner Alison Mutch said that if Mr Hamilton’s email had been answered, he would not have died.
The practice said it was ‘deeply saddened’ by Mr Hamilton’s death and has opened an ‘internal review to understand the exact circumstance’ of how his email was missed.
Mr Hamilton’s sister Vicki Doyle, 56, is calling for more robust systems to be put in place across GP surgeries. She said: ‘We are not talking about a missed appointment here, we are talking about someone’s life’.
In the subject of his email, Mr Hamilton warned he was suffering from ‘Breathlessness and shallow breathing,’ which Vicki, believes should have raised red flags and led to his case being triaged.
Ms Doyle continued: ‘It is just so difficult to get an appointment with the doctors now it is almost as if you have to fight for a doctor’s appointment and that to me is not right.
‘It is like the power is being taken away from the ordinary individual. A lot of people won’t fight especially a different generation who will just say: ‘It is alright, I will ring back later.’
Coroner Mutch added in a stark warning: ‘The inquest heard evidence that there was a risk of a similar situation arising if GP practices do not have clear and robust triage and audit processes in place.’
Andy Scaife, chief executive of SP Health which runs The Pike Practice said: ‘We are currently conducting a thorough internal review to understand the exact circumstance, which will include a review of the factual accuracy of certain aspects of the report.’
According to the inquest, Mr Hamilton passed away from lobar pneumonia, an acute form of pneumonia.
During his postmortem doctors also discovered, he was suffering from ischaemic heart disease.
According to his sister, Mr Hamilton would not have passed away if he had been seen in person so that his underlying cardiac issue could have been identified and eventually addressed.
During COVID, online doctor appointments, or “e-consultations,” gained popularity. However, there are worries that the technologies used to schedule these sessions may not function properly.
And many fear the elderly will struggle to use the technology needed to book.
Ms Doyle who works for the Duke of Edinburgh scheme and previously worked in sales at the Daily Mail added: ‘More and more people are moving to the online side of things.
‘I am fine with online but if the system keeps breaking and someone is not well, or it is an older person who cannot use it, that is going to cause problems.’
Mr Hamilton had a varied life, first serving as a policy advisor for the government, then going into teaching, and then landing a job providing care for people who had just left the hospital.
Paying tribute, Ms Doyle said: ‘He was a hugely intelligent person, the most intelligent person I have ever met. He was massive on his culture, he loved going to different countries and visiting different cities.
‘He loved his job absolutely loved it. He was a really strong individual and I am pretty sure he would have fought through the illnesses.
‘Allan and I travelled our lives side by side for most of it, even when we were miles apart, he was never far away from me in thought.
‘He relished adventure and simply observing everyday activities with a large mug of black filtered coffee.
‘He had a high moral compass, probably the highest moral compass I have ever come across and he would talk passionately about the ‘unjust’ in this world.
‘We shared a special bond and he introduced me to golf and we enjoyed going to various Opens and the Ryder Cup or local competitions to watch the experts.’
For a week, Mr. Hamilton experienced flu-like symptoms, which began to subside until they reappeared and made breathing difficult.
When the online consultation method failed, he decided to email his doctors.
Nevertheless, despite his succinct summary of his symptoms, he did not obtain a reply until 2.10 pm on Friday.
After not hearing from her brother for a few days, Ms Doyle became concerned after learning via Facebook that he had missed an evening gathering with friends on Friday.
‘I went across to his house but could not raise him and spoke to the neighbour who thought his car had moved,’ Vicki said.
‘I left my number with the neighbour just in case, and they contacted me and said they realised the car had not moved and it was a mistake.
‘So, I contacted the police on the Sunday, and he was deceased when they found him.’
Both their parents were originally from Scotland, and Ms Doyle said her brother was very proud of his ancestry, wearing a kilt at any given opportunity.
Although Mr. Hamilton was unmarried at the time of his passing, his friends and family held him in high regard.
Mr Scaife, added: ‘We are deeply saddened at the death of one of our patients. Our thoughts and heartfelt condolences are with Mr Hamilton’s family and loved ones during this difficult time.
‘We understand that, due to the Coroner’s report, there are concerns regarding the circumstances surrounding this unfortunate case. We are currently conducting a thorough internal review to understand the exact circumstance, which will include a review of the factual accuracy of certain aspects of the report.
‘We are in the process of preparing a full report which will detail our own findings and correct any factual inaccuracies. This will be shared with the Coroner in due course.’
It’s difficult to communicate with GPs since COVID and these surgeries must be held accountable.
I’m not sure why this gentleman did not call for an ambulance, although I’m guessing by the time the ambulance would have got there he would have been dead anyway – pneumonia can take hold extremely quickly.
E-consultations were good during COVID and they’re okay for minor illnesses like a boil on your bum, but when it comes to more severe issues and you are elderly. You put in the consultation and then have to remain by the phone, and heaven forbid you were to miss the call!
If you’re elderly and live alone and have to wait for a call, you can’t even go to the loo during the call window. If you have an elderly parent who is feeling genuinely unwell, they just won’t have the energy to fight for the appointment and will fall through the cracks.
This is all extremely sad and I feel sorry for families that have to go through this misery. I also feel that with GP surgeries you are made to feel like you’re an annoyance, along with all this online booking and triage because they’re just not that interested in you at all.
It’s also amazing how often GP surgeries and hospital staff still don’t communicate properly with each other.
The frequency of improper communication between hospital workers and general practitioner offices is likewise astounding.
After seeing a consultant, the GP doesn’t appear to notice the letter that the consultant sent. No one gets in touch with you despite your blood test. In Health Surgeries, there is also no systems process chasing to ensure that everything is operating as planned.
This man’s email, which outlined his symptoms in detail, took the surgery three days to respond to. Since when is email a suitable method for a general practitioner’s office to handle urgent cases?
Men are notoriously bad at going to the doctors and making a fuss about their symptoms, and this man was obviously reaching out for help. If this was the only form of contact his surgery had after they told their patients not to call the surgery, then they should have been continuously monitoring their emails, but of course, we wouldn’t want to inconvenience them, would we?
To be honest, navigating an automated phone system to schedule an appointment or even obtain test results is like attempting to speak with the dead.
If you do manage to get through they tell you to call the next day, but by the time you do get through all the appointments have gone, but you called at 8.30 am and they’re all gone – the fairies must have come and taken them in the night, or better still, you try to get through and after twenty minutes the line goes dead – surely in this day of technology, you would think that they would have more satisfactory methods.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 