On-call doctor provided 'sub-optimal care'

AN ON-CALL doctor about whom complaints were made by the family of a woman who died of a heart attack has been found to have provided “sub-optimal care” by a Medical Council fitness-to-practise committee.

The committee found that while it had been proved Dr Maria Gordos failed to provide adequate assistance to the family, she was not guilty of poor professional performance.

The hearing had been told Dr Gordos had spent time looking for her scarf in the house before leaving with the ambulance.

Dr Gordos, who attended at the home of a 60-year-old woman living with her husband in the south Carlow region on December 11th, 2010, had been accused of professional misconduct by delaying the departure of an ambulance without adequate reason. This accusation was withdrawn yesterday.

The patient, who was known throughout as “patient C” on direction of the committee, was pronounced dead later on the night in question at St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny.

The committee heard evidence on two further charges of poor professional performance: when Dr Gordos allegedly refused or failed to use a defibrillator when she ought to have used it, and of failing to provide adequate assistance or support to the patient’s family.

The former allegation was found not to have been proven, while the latter was found to have been proven.

Dr Gordos, originally from Hungary, was the on-call doctor for the out-of-hours GP service Caredoc. She arrived at the patient’s house at about 5.15pm, where a number of the woman’s adult children and her husband were waiting.

Though initially the patient had been complaining of a burning sensation in her chest and this was alleviated with aspirin and later morphine, the situation then became an “emergency” as she lost consciousness.

Patient C’s family said Dr Gordos did not tell them what was going on or what would happen to their mother. They said that after their mother had been brought to hospital, they had been gathered in the corridor outside AE. Dr Gordos had come out of AE, saw them and walked past without telling them how their mother was.

The hearing was told Dr Gordos had spent time in the house looking for her scarf before leaving with the ambulance.

Dr Gordos said one of the daughters had “used abusive language” about her desire to find her scarf.

Dr Gordos said she had not been able to talk to the family during the “emergency” situation in the house. “I had to concentrate on my patient. It was very tense situation. I had to put in an IV line.”

She said that as she left the AE department, she “received a very hostile look from one of the sons, which put me off completely. I had had very abusive language in the house. I feared for my life,” she said.

Catherine Earley, a lay member of the committee, asked whether an experienced GP should be able to deal with the stress of a family.

“Could I suggest the doctor, as she was gathering up her goods and chattels , should have been able to answer family questions, even briefly, once the patient had left the room, about her condition?”