‘I was ready to go to custody after an unfounded complaint’

A motion at the UK LMC conference called for GPs to be protected when under investigation, which passed. As part of the debate, GP partner Dr Jeremy Mellins shared his harrowing experience of an unfounded patient complaint, which he has agreed for Pulse to publish in full

Eighteen months ago, my life changed. I was in a consultation with a patient, and my GP partner started sending me increasingly frantic messages: Call me, call me, urgent. This never happens. I know something’s wrong. I worry. I finish the consultation as quickly as possible, and I phone her. She’s crying.

– ‘Are you by yourself? Is Mel at home to support you?’

She’s being psychologically aware. She’s never that psychologically aware with me. I know this is going to scar – whatever it is.

– ‘There’s been an allegation.’

– ‘Of what?’

– ‘I can’t tell you, but you can’t come into work anymore, and we can’t talk about it.’

– ‘Did I kill somebody?’

– ‘No, you didn’t kill anybody.’

– ‘So what is it?’

– ‘I can’t tell you.’

– ‘Are the police involved?’

– ‘Yes.’

– They’ve spoken to you?

– ‘Yes.’

– ‘Am I going to be arrested?’

– ‘Probably.’

Shit. I’m going to be arrested. Obviously, my thoughts start to spiral.

The accusation against me had been made by a patient to my GP trainee during a consultation. I had seen this patient two years prior and the trainee was now seeing them for a similar condition. The patient remarked on the difference in consultations between us, and a complaint was then made – two years after my interaction with the patient.

That night, I packed a bag for custody. I used to be a forensic medical examiner, and I knew the local custody suites. I knew where I was going. And that’s how I came to sit all night in the dark with a bag packed, waiting for the door to knock so that it wouldn’t wake my children. I still didn’t know what the accusation was – and only found out two weeks later.

They never did take me. Weeks passed. I knew nothing. They threatened to come to my children’s school to talk to them about ‘a thing’. I threatened to injunct them. I was helped by my LMC.

My practice partners reported the complaint to the local authority safeguarding team. While it was being investigated, the partners asked me not to come into the practice, and not to work. I had not been suspended from the performers list, but was essentially suspended from my practice at this time.

I was being paid during this time, but my partnership agreement gave my partners have the right to eject me – at which point the payments would stop. I was terrified: I could go to jail; I could lose my kids; I could lose my home; I could lose my job; and I could lose my freedom. It spirals and it spirals and I’m guilty until proven innocent without so much as a charge, without a suggestion. This is Kafka. This is the trial.

Now I was lucky. Yes, it was hugely traumatic – I had to go on SSRIs. But, my partner stood by me, my LMC stood by me, my GPs in this room stood by me. I had brilliant help from Practitioner Health. The allegation melted away within a month, as the accusation was found not to be true, but it won’t ever leave me.

This needs to change. When an accusation is made against a GP, there has to be a fixed pack of information presented to them at that point – laying out what they are entitled to, and where to seek it out. It was not unreasonable for my partners to act the way they did. I have no complaints or misgivings about that – it is essential to do so to protect patient safety.

But I was not afforded any information myself at the time, and had no protection myself. In no other sphere of investigative procedures are you treated like that.

Motion 16 (see below) is a first step to give GPs under investigation the most basic rights to fair treatment. Little one – the neutral act. It’s just not to be judged by being accused. It’s to turn accusation away from being a blatant article – and being just that at the start of something.

Little two [of the motion – see below] prevents potential irreversible harm done to partners by the cessation of payment until such time as wrongdoing is proven.

Little three [of the motion – see below] just asks partnerships to treat each other as they want to be treated. That surely is basic.

I hope none of you will ever find yourself with bag-packed at the middle of the night, etc. But that’s a forlorn hope, isn’t it? It will happen to somebody in this room and I know that I have to use my experience for good. Pass this motion and you will at least know that the roof will remain over your children’s heads while you mount your defence. At least the lights will stay on while you scrabble around in the dark.

So from the bottom of my somewhat gnarled heart, I call you support this motion. Conference, I move.