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Dismissal of Care

Posted By robinsn38

"Dismissal of Care"

About: General Practices in Grampian

(as a service user),

I am flabbergasted at this experience. 

My 10 week old baby had a very watery eye which was inflamed (red and puffy) so naturally I called the local GP to be seen. 

They called back to say that they won't see me as any eye issues need to be done through the patient's opticians (let's remember, she's only 10 weeks old!). 

Thankfully my optician booked her in via emergency and saw her later that day but even they said that this was the youngest patient they have dealt with. 

I can't fault the opticians as they did as much as they could with such an young child. 

I feel failed by my local GP. I understand they may not have had the equipment to check eyes but surely they could have seen us or asked for accompanying pictures to help a new mum figure out what's wrong. 

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Responses

Response from Kirsten Dickson, Quality Improvement and Assurance Facilitator, Quality Improvement and Assurance Team, NHS Grampian 3 hours ago
Kirsten Dickson
Quality Improvement and Assurance Facilitator, Quality Improvement and Assurance Team,
NHS Grampian

Submitted on 09/07/2025 at 11:55
Published on Care Opinion at 11:55

picture of Kirsten Dickson

Dear Robinsn38

Thank you for sharing this with us. Firstly, I’m glad to hear the optician saw your wee one quickly and I hope her eye is now clearing up.

I’m sorry to hear you had a difficult encounter with the GP. When something isn’t right, and you have a tiny baby you are trying to do your best for, of course you would turn to the GP first. Not everyone is registered with an optician, or has even had the need to visit one in their lifetime, so it’s not the first place that comes to mind to contact.

NHS Grampian has a webpage dedicated to giving advice around who to contact when you or a family member is ill or injured. The practice might have directed you to this resource for next time – but just in case not, you can access the webpage here.

The majority of GP Practices in Grampian are independent contractors, each with their own system for managing complaints and feedback. They don't have access to the Care Opinion system and won't see this feedback without it going directly to them.

If you’d like the practice to address your feedback specifically, you will need to call or write to the practice manager at the practice. If you would like independent advice or support on providing feedback to your practice there is the option to contact the Patient advice and Support Service by calling 0800 917 2127 or by visiting their website.

When contacting the practice directly, you will need to share your name and contact details, they won’t look into your feedback without this information unfortunately. I know not everyone feels comfortable sharing their name and contact details with the practice, and if would like, I can share your feedback with them anonymously - but you will need to contact me directly with the name of the practice (any contact information shared with me won't be shared any further) and any reply that comes through is unlikely to address the issues you have raised.

It would also be good to share the feedback with the optician (if you haven’t already) I can do this too.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Kirsten

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