My 4-hour operation after family doctor refused to see me
GRANDMOTHER Sue Dennigan was taken to hospital and underwent a four-hour operation for a twisted bowel after her GP refused to see her in person.
Yesterday, the 71-year-old widow, who works as a receptionist, said it was ‘shocking’ doctors were proposing industrial action rather than returning to seeing their patients in person.
‘All this will do is punish patients,’ she said.
Mrs Dennigan, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, first called for an appointment with her GP at the start of July after falling ill with abdominal pains. But her surgery wasn’t holding faceto-face appointments. In a phone consultation, a paramedic misdiagnosed a water
infection and constipation.
She made two further calls to her GP over the next few days, but was refused a faceto-face appointment, although her GP did order a scan. She also went to A&E, but doctors said she was constipated and sent her home.
Mrs Dennigan then collapsed on her bathroom floor, and her daughter took her to hospital where a scan showed a life-threatening twisted bowel.
The next day – five days after first having stomach pains – she had a four-hour emergency operation to remove her right colon.
‘I was incredibly lucky, but others have died because they weren’t able to see their GP in the pandemic,’ she added.