Is this really how to treat a patient?
GP blocks in 80-year-old who parked in her space
A GP has been accused of blocking in a disabled 80year-old patient’s car to ‘teach him a lesson’ for parking in her space outside the surgery.
Dr Gill Edmondson, 52, was furious when she found that Mohammed Hossain had taken her spot because he was late for a 9.30am appointment, according to the patient’s daughter.
When the grandfather-of-three came out, he found Dr Edmondson’s Lexus blocking in his Honda – and was allegedly told it would not be moved until the GP finished work at 2.30pm.
Police had to be called to the dispute at Chorlton Health Centre in south Manchester.
Mr Hossain, who has high blood pressure after suffering a stroke, said that he had apologised profusely but was ‘shocked and upset’ at the way he had been treated.
His daughter, solicitor Rebecca Hossain, 37, has since lodged a complaint with the NHS.
She said: ‘He should not have parked where he did, obviously. He was rushing and anxious and apologetic afterwards.
‘But it is just pettiness. Someone else could have moved her car and he wouldn’t have been left shivering in the cold.’
Mr Hossain had been running late for his appointment last Thursday after misplacing his car keys and found no disabled spaces were available. He decided to take a chance and park in the staff-only area, displaying his blue disabled badge in the windscreen.
But when he returned to his £400 hatchback, he found that it had been blocked in by Dr Edmondson’s car.
The widower said he asked if the GP could move her vehicle, only to be told the doctor was ‘furious’ and he would have to wait until she finished at 2.30pm because she ‘wanted to teach him a lesson’.
Mr Hossain, who worked as an accountant for more than 45 years, then had to catch a bus to nearby Whalley Range and walk to the office of his family business, where he called his daughter. Miss Hossain then rang the police to complain.
She said: ‘The police called the surgery and within ten minutes they called me back and told me that the car had been moved.
‘It is wrong that a doctor should withhold someone’s car for any amount of time.’
Her father added: ‘I was told that the doctor was very annoyed. ‘I was saying a little prayer because I was worried and didn’t know what to do.
‘I was apologising, but do not think that a patient should be treated like this. It shocked and upset me.
‘I was not rude. I could not be nasty to anyone, especially a doctor who I come to to extend my life.’ Yesterday the GP’s husband Eje Edmondson, 52, admitted that his wife may have ‘overreacted’ but said it had been out of character.
Speaking outside the couple’s five-bedroom house, which is near the surgery, Mr Edmondson said: ‘It’s unfortunate because I know what she’s like and she would have preferred that not to have happened.’
In 2003 Dr Edmondson complained to health magazine Pulse that the £100,000 salary of her local NHS trust’s chief executive was too high – arguing that it could be used to pay for four health assistants instead.
Greater Manchester Police confirmed it had received a ‘call for assistance required’ concerning the parking dispute.
Chorlton Health Centre declined to comment.
‘He was rushing and anxious’