"My father's treatment by his local GP practice"

My normal, active father is in his 80s, he has just been discharged from hospital after being admitted to the Coronary Care Unit in the Royal Alexandra Hospital. They have basically saved my father's life, giving me my Dad back.

He did not have a heart attack or anything like that. He was basically being made ill and frail by the medications he had been prescribed by the GP for hypertension and arrhythmia.  However it turned out he had been on too many medications for too long and had not had a medication review for over 5 years.  The heart medication had slowed his heart so much, he was failing. The 3 different BP medication side effects were debilitating him and despite frequent visits to the Practice Nurses for blood pressure tests, annual checks and leg dressings for peripheral oedema caused by poor circulation and BP medication side effects.

Having now looked into the side effects caused by the cocktail of drugs he was on, I now realise that he was being poisoned by those drugs and should have been having 6 monthly reviews for the SVT medication.

The GP kicked all this off by doubling his diuretic medication as his leg wounds were weeping so badly (due to the lack of circulation and low heart rate caused by the SVT drugs stopping his heart from working properly.)

This then led to low sodium levels which was picked up my a blood test requested by the GP.  He was called into hospital urgently by an out of hours GP reviewing the blood test results at the hospital lab.

All the staff at the GP surgery seemed to have missed the numerous red flags that were showing in my father...all side effects of prolonged BP and SVT medication use, despite his repeated visits.  He had not be seen by a GP for over 3 years and always by the practitioner nurses.

I feel angry with the practice and the lack of follow-through care. They seemed to not look at the bigger picture, just adding more drugs to the list for him to take.