DAUK has written to the health secretary calling for urgent action to improve patient safety following coroners’ reports into the deaths of two children referred to hospital by their GPs with suspected appendicitis.
Doctors Association UK (DAUK) GP co-leads Dr Sarah Jacques and Dr Steve Taylor highlight the cases of nine-year-old Dylan Cope and eight-year-old Ethan Hanson.
In both cases, the children were appropriately assessed in primary care and urgently referred to hospital by their GP.
However, according to the coroners’ findings, neither child was assessed by a doctor after arriving at hospital.
Patient safety
Dr Jacques and Dr Taylor’s letter states: “These cases raise serious questions about the safety of current assessment systems in emergency departments and the roles of non-doctors.
“When a GP refers a patient to hospital, that referral represents a clinical judgment that is the equivalent of a medical consultant opinion in the community, and thus necessitates a further medical assessment.”
DAUK is urging health secretary James Murray to introduce clear national standards to ensure patients referred by GPs are assessed by a doctor on arrival in hospital.
They are:
- Any patient referred by a community GP to hospital by a GP must be assessed by a doctor in the hospital.
- No patient presenting with undifferentiated (undiagnosed) symptoms should be allowed to be assessed or discharged without the approval of a doctor.
- We ask the Secretary of State to review the current status of assessments in emergency departments to ensure patient safety is the priority and that doctors are involved in all cases of undifferentiated care and GP referrals.
Improvements in clinical practice
In their letter, Dr Jacques and Dr Taylor said: “It’s vital we ensure that the issues identified by the coroners in the cases of Dylan Cope and Ethan Hanson lead to improvements in clinical practice.”
DAUK has invited Mr Murray and Department of Health officials to discuss the proposals.
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