"Missed Diagnosis"

My son cut his finger four days later his finger began to swell and his hand was very painful.  He phoned the Helensburgh Medical Centre and was given an appointment. They said they’d be very surprised if there was a foreign body in the wound, suggested he may of lay on it in bed causing the pain and gave him some cream to apply. He was told if there was no improvement by the weekend to go to the vale of Leven hospital to get an X-ray. (This would have been four days later) 

Fortunately my son wasn’t happy with this diagnosis and as the pain continued we took him to VOL hospital who promptly sent him to RAH.  Turns out my son had a very bad infection in the Tendon Sheath which required him to be on a drip for days and go under general anaesthetic to have the tendon cleaned. We were told he was very lucky to have caught it early as it could have been very serious. My son said the consultant commented on it being missed at the health centre. 

We can’t fault the consultant and the hospital staff on his treatment - they were very thorough and professional. However, I do worry that due to covid we are as patients seeing people in our health centres who are perhaps not able to make these diagnosis. If there’s even a slightest bit of doubt with a patient I feel they should seek a second opinion from a doctor or make an onward referral to a hospital. We were lucky not to have taken the advice given.