How would you feel if you discovered that your GP (since retired) had not disclosed to you that you had a recorded 500 Rh factor in 2010, following a 'nil' result only 6 months earlier?
In March 2016, a recorded 243.9 Rh factor [normal range 0 - 14 IU/mL] was accompanied by Anti CCP 300 [normal range 0 - 19.9 U/mL].
I don't know whether to feel angry or sad, but I can't just let it go.
Write to your practice manager and tell them how you feel. Also tell them how you have missed out of treatment and you worry about the damage that could have been done due to not being refered to a rheumy. I know the dr can't be sanctioned because he has retired,but you will have had your say darling.xxxxx
The doctor can be held responsible Sylvi. GP's (& anyone who treats patients, even Optometrists) have to take out medical indemnity to cover claims for clinical negligence which is also effective once retired.
So sorry dodo, some doctors are pretty useless it has to be said 
I think that's a good idea of Sylvi's, get it all out in a letter.
You could also go to a Solicitor who specialises in medical negligence if you choose to take it further.
It's the time though isn't it, the waste of time when you could have been getting treatment. I think I'd feel exactly the same way angry and sad.
Be gentle with yourself today, xxx
Mrs Bones i tried that with the hospital when i had my knee re-done and the surgeons stick together and i couldn't claim anything.xxxx
Sorry to hear that Sylvi. They protect each other don't they xxxx
How would I feel? Absolutely raging with fury!
sylvi's right - you might feel a bit better if you wrote to the practice, and it might also make them buck up their ideas for other patients. And ask for an apology, the doctor may have retired but they could still contact him and ask him to say sorry!
How dreadful! I wonder how many other people has this man harmed? Find out the legalities of contacting former patients and let the law handle this. Just because he is retired does not mean you can not go through the courts.
I replied yesterday but it's not appeared for some reason though I may not have pressed reply hard enough, having dexterity probs.
I would be spitting mad! I agree with the others & make your Surgery's Practice Manager aware, either informally if you don't wish to pursue duty of care or formally in writing if you do. I just don't understand why he'd withhold such important info & as it's making you feel as if you can't let it go (& it would me too!) then I would also make the PM aware of that too. Because of his decision you've in essence been left untreated for around 5 years. Can I ask how this came to light?
Wow, I thought my GP was negligent but that goes way beyond. I am not sure how your system works in UK but please do not just let this be. It seems to me if we focused our attention more on early detection and prevention we would be far better off.
After my diagnoses I started collecting all test reseaults myself. I was shocked at how much was kept from me all theses years. It was very clear that I had a systemic illness yet went at least ten years without it. Moreover, he continues to deny the severity of my condition. I am meeting him tomorrow or fire him. This will be accompanied by letter of complaint with board of physicians and surgeons. This is more than a year after I literally forced him to run blood work. He decided it was FM and wanted to send me off with yet another useless script. My husband drove me as I could no longer walk or drive. Your CPP indicates severe seropositive RA. We have Physicians Guide to treatment here in CDA. It is a great place to start. Although your GP is retired , all doctors follow complaints. They need to know patients are now actively participating in their own health care. NO MORE DOCTORS KNOWS BEST....THEY DO NOT..YOU DO. No one knows your body better than you, doctors must rely on the patient to quite treatment. I kept this GP for fifteen years. His lack of proper care has put me in this situation and he continues to disappoint. Now time to demand he acknowledge his mistakes. At least, if nothing else, I will have the opportunity to speak my mind. I know doctors are only human but then again so are we. If we screw up we are held accountable so should they.
I am not just angry that he missed what should have been an easy diagnoses but that he continues to trivialize my condition . Not sure if that is from a sense of guilt but quite frankly do not care. His other habit has been to prescribe opiates. I keep telling him they are not effective. Now that I have genetics I understand why , I metabolize them very quickly. I have been five weeks (-1 injection) without any pain meds or RA meds. Since when did treatment for chronic pain become no treatment. I see an internist Oct 4th. Still no pain meds ? I have been having endless issues with heart, blood pressure, infections....
so lash out..if nothing else it give you an outlet for some frustration....I just want to scream sometimes...like now . I barely sleep four hours a night. My body goes into meltdown the minute I fall asleep..I get to enjoy the experience a full twenty hours a day lol
Sorry, I guess I am more upset than I realized. Dodo1943, I think what your GP has done is inexcusable. It is so important to treat early and aggressively. it makes me so angry. I am so very sorry this happened to you. Let's hope this new generation of geniuses comes up with something helpful. Writing does help venting rofl I just need to direct it to the right people lol
Thanks for all the replies, which I've been mulling over during the last fortnight.
In answer to nomoreheels' enquiry, this came to light after April 2016 when I gained access to my personal online health records held by my practice. I didn't spot it initially but some weeks later, tucked away on a graph attached to Immunology, I encountered the bald '500 Rh factor' record, without any normal range indicator, above the result for 2016 which recorded 243.9 Rh factor and normal range 0 - 14 IU/mL]. I was astonished and assumed it must have been an administrative error, which I raised by email to the Practice together with a bunch of other questions in June. Their email response was that my GP was looking into matters and would respond by post the following week. That didn't happen: the correspondence via letter from the Manager mid-July addressed all the other issues but not this most significant. If I had any further concerns regarding my medical records it was suggested I book an appointment with my GP who would be happy to address any concerns during a 10 minute appointment!
My first appointment was due with my Specialist Rheumy Nurse at the hospital a couple of weeks ago and she could not find a test result for 2010 in my hospital records. I had already booked an appointment at the practice for a week later: not with my appointed GP but with another who, on the practice website, had expressed her particular interest in the management of elderly patients with complex medical conditions. Having now met this delightful young woman, I have initiated a transfer to her list.
In retrospect I consider myself unlucky to have fallen through the net of two doctors: my second ever - a kind and caring man reduced to 2 days working per week and facing retirement with a terminally ill wife - and his successor - a youngster who 6 years later has still not thought it prudent to publish his interests.
My angst has now dissipated: it appears that in the absence of a raised ESR and with a negative "Antinuclear antibody screening test" my "highly pos rh factor" presented risk of false positive in 2010. Had either my younger daughter or myself been made aware of it then, I think it likely we would have pursued re-testing periodically during the following 6 years. There was no doubting the 2016 Anti-CCP antibody level 300 U/mL or Serum CRP level 34 mg/L after I relayed my daughters' concerns during a flare that they were not linking all the symptoms I'd been presenting for years. A Junior Doctor and a Trainee at the Practice listened, for which I shall be eternally grateful.
I am not sure what these numbers mean.
High Rheumatoid Factor
Is it possible for me to be in remission with high CRP level?
Hi all new to this site! but not new to RA :(
- Flare ups how long is an average flare up
