A doctor with many patients in his surgery cannot be expected to drop everything to go out on a house call, the High Court has been told.
A British medical practitioner, Dr Peter d'Ambruneil, was giving evidence on the third day of an action in which a Dublin widow is suing a GP over the death of her husband more than a decade ago.
Mrs Margaret Eite of Bolbrook Villas, Tallaght, Co Dublin, alleges that Dr Andrew Jordan of Heatherview Avenue, Aylesbury, Tallaght, negligently and in breach of contract failed to respond to a series of telephone calls made on behalf of her husband, Mr Noel Eite, to his surgery on November 7th, 1988. Mr Eite died later that day.
Dr Jordan denies the claim.
In court yesterday, Dr d'Ambruneil, who was giving evidence for the Eite family, said he had heard that it was Dr Jordan's protocol, when in surgery treating his patients, to send an ambulance to urgent house calls and a substitute doctor to non-urgent ones. If this was the case, it was a perfectly reasonable procedure to adopt.
But it was not acceptable for a doctor to tell his surgery staff: "Tell them I'm not available, go and get someone else," he said.
Dr d'Ambruneil said a doctor in these circumstances of non-availability could deal with the situation by devolving responsibility to others such as a substitute or calling the emergency services.
Cross-examined by Mr John Fitzgerald SC, for Dr Jordan, the witness said that, when compiling a report on the circumstances of Mr Eite's death, he did not have available to him either the medical records of the deceased or any information about Dr Jordan or the extent of his practice.
Such information would have helped him to understand how Dr Jordan ran his practice.
In a situation, he said, where Dr Jordan could not be contacted or was not available, his surgery receptionist had an obligation where a call had been received about a patient with chest pains to order an ambulance or suggest that the family do it.
Dr d'Ambruneil said Dr Jordan's patient total of 3,000 GMS and between 3,500 and 4,000 private which was shared between himself and another doctor was a very heavy workload. In the UK the average patient list per doctor was between 2,400 and 2,600.
Mrs Veronica Kavanagh, daughter of Mr Eite, said all the family felt guilty about his death. They should have picked up the phone and called an ambulance instead of listening to Dr Jordan's receptionist saying she would ring back, she said.
The hearing continues on Tuesday next.