‘Practice reported me to social services when I argued I should see GP instead of going to A&E’ claims Doncaster mum

Nadia Khawaja, a patient at the Edlington Practice, at the Martinwells Centre, Thompson Avenue, Edlington, said she rang the practice up to ask for a GP appointment because her daughter was getting breathless.

It was not an immediate problem – it was something she suffered from occasionally and she wanted to check if there were a broader issue.

She also called 111 who said it was not an emergency.

When she called her GP practice, she was told she should go to A&E.

She said she questioned this, and asked for a face to face GP appointment which she didn't get.

In the end, she did go to A&E, where she was told it was not an emergency and that she should not have been told to go there.

But she became very upset when she later received a call from social services, accusing her of failing to get medical treatment for her child. She said they quickly closed the case when they realised what had happened.

But Nadia, aged 31, from Edlington was told it was the GP surgery that had referred her case to social services.

She feels very upset and feels she can no longer trust her GP practice.

She also feels that the practice is just trying to get people to go to the A&E instead of seeing the patients they should be seeing.

She said: “I was asking for a face to face appointment and it feels like they were trying to silence me by calling social services with false information. I was just asking for a face to face appointment. I found this quite damaging to my child and to me. It feels like I can’t question any medical situation involving myself or my daughter.

"I feel it was an abuse of power. I feel that it is frightening. It had been claimed that I did not seek medical assistance for my daughter. I’ve never known anything like it. I’m shocked and in disbelief.

"I feel I can’t trust GP practices any more. I have a right as a human to question treatment.”

Nadia had only recently come out of hospital herself, having suffered preeclampsia while pregnant with her second daughter, who is currently still in the neo natal unit.

She has reported the incident to the Care Quality Commission.

A spokesperson at The Edlington Practice said: "We are unable to comment due to patient confidentiality. I would urge patients to contact us directly so we can investigate their concerns through our complaints procedure and provide a full response.

“I would like to make it clear that we are committed to providing a high level of care and service to our patients.”

Doncaster children’s services declined to comment.

A spokesperson from the CQC said:“We can confirm CQC have received a complaint from a patient at the Edlington Practice in Doncaster. Although CQC does not investigate individual concerns, all information we receive informs our monitoring of services and future inspections.

"Our priority is always the care and wellbeing of people using services."

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