GP is suspended for failing to properly treat patient through telephone consultations

A GP who avoided face-to-face appointments during the covid pandemic has been suspended from the UK medical register for six months for failing to properly treat a patient through telephone consultations.

Alyn Williams, a partner at Chapel Street Surgery in Billericay, Essex, told the medical practitioners tribunal that his age (66) and obesity had made him vulnerable to the virus and that building work at his surgery had made face-to-face appointments harder to arrange there.

But while he had the right to choose telephone consultations instead, the tribunal heard, he also failed to refer “Patient A” for examination at a hospital or other available facilities despite the patient’s reports of worsening symptoms over three telephone consultations from 14 December 2020 to 7 January 2021.

Patient A was eventually brought to hospital after his stepson, who was a paramedic, called …