Decision report 201003699

Summary
Mrs C complained that her medical practice removed her and her baby from the
practice list without prior discussion, warning or reasonable explanation. In the course of the investigation, we found that the practice removed Mrs C because they believed that she had missed an appointment. This was in line with the practice’s protocol for new patients missing appointments. We found, however, that their protocol did not adhere to the General Medical Council Regulations on this issue (Section 20 of Schedule 5, Part 2, of The National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts) (Scotland) Regulations 2004).

Recommendations
We recommended that the practice:
• apologise for removing Mrs C and her baby from the practice list without any prior warning, discussion or reasonable explanation;
• provide us with a copy of the revised protocol for removing both new and existing
patients from the practice list in situations where appointments are not kept and
adequate cancellation notice is not given; and
• review their systems for documenting when appointments have been made, in
particular when they are made at the patient's request, to ensure they are robust
and accurate.