Ellie-May Clark died after GP turned her away for being late

[WskyDK]

because many times driving to a hospital is faster??

Ambulance is reserved for someone unable to be safely moved without medical professional experience.

She was turning blue. She needed professional medical experience.

[Garnier Fructis]

What kind of monster turns down someone for an emergency appointment because they are over 10 minutes late!?

What kind of monster doesn't take their kid to the ER when they're clearly having an actual emergency?

Maybe monster isn't the right word. Retard is probably more fitting here.

[Kallisto]

The wonders of socialized healthcare.

The wonders of a Conservative (the name of the ruling party in the UK) government who has as the person in charge of health a man named Jeremy Hunt. A man who every doctor, nurse, hell even hospital janitors hate so much because of his ideological push to underfund the NHS to force the public to get behind privatization. He co-authored a policy pamphlet calling for the NHS to be fuck the poor american style back in 2005 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...-a6865306.html .

His actions have done more than any other Health Secretary in living memory. It's demoralized staff, and along with Brexit is pushing an exodus for many doctors and nurses. Leaving an underfunded, understaffed, undertrained NHS which is only going to get worse. Worse still the guy believes in unscientific shit like Homeopathy which will mean he will (and has been) pushing that into the NHS. Worse still He got a promotion into where not only is he Secretary of State for Health but also Social care. The guy that wants to tear down the entire thing and puts in place something which anyone making under £100k ($140k) a year will have issues affording healthcare and social care. If they can afford it at all.

It's like putting a militant vegan in charge of an abattoir

[Deleted]

It is sad that this little girl passed away but I really don't see how the GP surgery is at fault here.. If it's a serious emergency you go to your local A&E, you don't make an emergency appointment at a doctor's surgery and then miss your appointment and then argue about it.

[Rotted]

I never heard of "being late" for an emergency appointment. You go to the ER they take you in first come first serve and it runs 24/7. At least here in the states.

Not by any means defending the doctor; but here at my doctors they have a specific time frame which are allocated as specific emergency appointments which they are free to see people (Irony decided by receptionists). If you run late for one of these then you're cutting into the next persons time so you only get a certain amount of allowance.

Emergencys can class as anything out of the usual, take me for example; I suffer with Crohns disease part of my medication is immuno-suppressants. These basically lower my immune system to stop my body attacking my colon, great. The down side is I'm more likely to catch infections. The one I get often is ear infections, every single time I get one coming I have to go in for one of these appointments and get a two week course of antibiotics ASAP just incase it leads to a blood infection. Now if Im late for that, I'll get about 5 minutes to play with before they take in the next person. Most of the time (as far as I know) the docs only see your notes and what your complaint is.

A general ANE call (or ER as you call it) is physically going into the hospital department often unannounced with a issue and they then put you on a priority list.

All that being said, the one time I turned up to a appointment late (it was out of my control), I was told I missed it, but they simply let the person after me go in my slot and I went after.

[ohwell]

So? It's not like they're at your doorstep the second you call. It could still be faster for you to drive there.

Depends on where you live. Where I live it is 100% faster to call them, but if I lived in one of the surrounding towns driving would be faster. I mean the evidence is mounted against you already for this case as clearly taking the bus there was NOT faster.

[Aitch]

The point of an ambulance is not to get you to the hospital faster, it’s to get life-saving procedures and equipment to the person that needs it as soon as possible. You might be able to get yourself to the hospital faster than an ambulance can, but not faster than a trained paramedic can get to you.

I’m not saying this as passing a judgement upon the parents. I’m just disturbed at the amount of misinformation in this thread and I wouldn’t want anyone to make a bad decision because of it.

[Usagi Senshi]

Its very unfortunate for what happened to the child because of circumstances outside of her control. :/

[Violent]

How is that relevent?

Uhhh, just a shot in the dark, but uh, maybe it dictates protocol and how things are dealt with? I mean, just fuckin guessing...... (sarcasm)

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Uhhh, just a shot in the dark, but uh, maybe it dictates protocol and how things are dealt with? I mean, just fuckin guessing...... (sarcasm)

you'd guess wrong.

[Deleted]

From the article it's plain to see that some kid died because of muppet jobsworths and the inquiry was just to humour the idea of holding those responsible to account.

Ah yes capitalism healthcare, where you have the highest maternal death rate of the modern world. Congratulations on being third world.

Why is that a bad thing compared to wasting money on that in a socialized healthcare system while letting other people die.

This story doesn't describe the only avenue available within our healthcare system; in the UK you can visit local walk-in centres without making appointments and be seen in order of urgency, visit a hospital's A&E room for more severe and and immediate issues

What walk in centres, because depending on where you are they're aren't any. How would you know if it was serious enough for A&E until it was too late?
Private is run by the same people in the NHS and why should you pay or be put at risk if they aren't doing their job properly.

A failure in what way? The kid was suffering an actual emergency and this doctor's office is not an ER.

The only negligence was the parent who took their kid home instead of to an ER.

Again, how would you know if its an emergency? Would you go to A&E if you were feeling a bit wheezy?

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As a fresh MD, I've never heard of "emergency" appointments; at least not here in Europe. There's either an emergency or not, but there are no "emergency appointments".

In most place in the UK you either get up at the crack of dawn and hope you can get an appointment on the day or you book weeks in advance. An emergency appointment is if you are having symptoms that aren't dangerous enough to go to hospital but could be.

The wonders of a Conservative (the name of the ruling party in the UK) government who has as the person in charge of health a man named Jeremy Hunt. A man who every doctor, nurse, hell even hospital janitors hate so much because of his ideological push to underfund the NHS to force the public to get behind privatization.

because the healthcare system was fine and dandy under the previous governments like Labour and what about the institutional problems that remain whichever government are in charge?

[Fluttershy]

uh sorry but she was late, its not fair for pajeet who scratched his toe kicking some degenerate slag for showing some skin

[I Push Buttons]

Again, how would you know if its an emergency? Would you go to A&E if you were feeling a bit wheezy?

1. Trouble breathing is a pretty big deal, if I went from breathing normally to literally unable to catch a breath suddenly with no explanation, I would definitely go to an ER.

2. If the parents who actually saw the kid didn't think it was an emergency aren't negligent, then how is this doctor who didn't even see the kid negligent? He has no obligation to put his entire practice behind schedule because someone is late and he certainly isn't operating an emergency room (and once again, you are claiming the parents had no reason to think it was an emergency)... So how exactly is he negligent in any way whatsoever?

[Grokresh]

The wonders of socialized healthcare.

She could have gone to A nd E, this seems more like a mistake of the doctor to be honest for not being professional and checking the chart, the doctor even said they don't know why they did what they did. We have socialized healthcare as an option, you don't have to use it and it costs us half as much from our taxes as American healthcare costs from their taxes (Before they even qualify for treatment) So agian, americans have to pay twice as much tax for healthcare yet that doesn't even qualify you to use it straight away. We pay half as much and still have the option to use private healthcare.

[Floopa]

So? It's not like they're at your doorstep the second you call. It could still be faster for you to drive there.

the national average ambulance response time in the UK for life threatening calls is 8 minutes.

you should always wait for am ambulance.

[caervek]

In the doctor's defense, why would you go to a GP for an "emergency"?

An emergency GP appointment means that it isn't pre booked, I.E you call and ask to see your GP as a priority as your issue is important enough not to wait for a later time/day, but not important enough to go the the hospital's emergency appointment.

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the national average ambulance response time in the UK for life threatening calls is 8 minutes.

you should always wait for am ambulance.

Unless you live close to the hospital and the person is safe to move OFC :P

[Allatar]

Everyone knows the NHS is underfunded. The wonders of a tory government that wants to privatise everything they can.

You do realise that this happened in Wales, where the NHS is run by a Labour administration, right? There is a very real reason people point to the NHS in Wales and say 'look at what happens with Labour in charge'.

[Lollis]

You do realise that this happened in Wales, where the NHS is run by a Labour administration, right? There is a very real reason people point to the NHS in Wales and say 'look at what happens with Labour in charge'.

It is financed by the government in Westminster though. You can only blame management so much.

When libraries were being shut down in my area there were people complaining that the labour councillors were at fault, but when you realise that the funding is decided by conservatives who do you blame?

Councils are told to reduce spending, they do so, and it is the council who is to blame? No.

[Vankrys]

It sounds to me that it's a failure from the doctor to triage.

on one hand the doctor said

“If you have 25 patients to see in a morning or afternoon and a lot of people are 15 minutes late or 20 minutes late you are never going to be able to manage your work,” Dr Rowe said, according to Yahoo.

Which is understandable, however

On Tuesday at Newport Coroner’s Court, Dr Rowe admitted she failed to look at records which showed Ellie-May was in danger of a life-threatening asthma attack, and had previously been in intensive care, Daily Mail reports.

Seems to me, given the emergency nature, that doctor could have send home some patient with less life threatening condition to see that girl.


I won't hold it too strong on the doctor though, everyone makes mistake, and she probably is beating herself up for that one. When doctors make mistake, people die.

[Deleted]

The GP surgery had a 10 minute rule regarding appointment times, more than 10 minutes late for your appointment and there is no guarantee that you will be seen by a GP. The parent had difficulty in arranging transport to the GP surgery so was late for the appointment, but the 10 minute rule doesn’t apply to emergency appointments, yet the GP in question still refused to see the child. At the enquiry, the GP at the centre of this tragic tale admitted that her actions were wrong.

The 10 minute rule absolutely applies to emergency appointments. An emergency appointment is just an appointment that can be made on the day - there is no difference. You think that emergency appointments will take priority over scheduled appointments? Or other emergency appointments? In the current health climate you can’t make exceptions because everyone in that surgery has a legitimate problem which means someone who is late to their appointment does not take someone else’s. Also the GP did not admit what she did was wrong, she offered an apology and received a warning from the GMC which was only done to save face. The GMC are rediculous when it comes to publicity. If the doctor was truly held accountable she would have been struck off and wouldn’t be working in a GP down the road.