IN MY VIEW

MY heart goes out to the McGill family – this is an awful case to have to come to terms with.

They shouldn’t blame themselves for not pushing harder for an MRI scan. They asked the question and put their trust in the NHS when it answered.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time I have heard about a case like this. I don’t think our GPs have enough time with patients. Ten minutes isn’t sufficient to really absorb what patients are saying.

If they could spend a little bit longer with patients, more would be picked up. There are serious problems being missed but they already have so many people to see, so what do you do?

It’s upsetting to hear about someone having so many appointments but his condition not being picked up. Why weren’t questions asked when his condition wasn’t improving? Someone should have taken responsibility instead of passing the buck.

Taxpayers have paid for those scanners, so why weren’t they used when they couldn’t identify the problem? I can only hope the same mistakes aren’t repeated.

There is a real lack of confidence in the health service and it’s no wonder. We speak to patients who are frightened to go into hospital because they think they won’t come back out.

The worrying thing is there will be other cases out there we don’t even know about where people have been misdiagnosed or had a condition missed because GPs are run off their feet and don’t have enough time.

It is a bleak picture.