Daughter's anguish after 'drunk out-of-hours doctor failed to help elderly woman who died hours later'

Multiple inquiries: Dorothy Seecoomar, 81, died 40 hours after being in the care of a doctor who was intoxicated, according to claims

Three inquiries have been launched into claims that an out-of-hours doctor was too intoxicated to operate the oxygen supply of a frail and elderly woman, who died 40 hours later.

It is alleged the doctor arrived 'incoherent' with bloodshot eyes, and phoned a hospital medic for help but appeared not to understand his instructions. The following day Dorothy Seecoomar, 81, was admitted to hospital, and she died 24 hours later on August 17. The doctor had been sent by Harmoni, the largest private provider of urgent care services in England.

Dorothy Seecoomar meeting Conservative MP Justine Greening in Putney two months before her death, having discussed disability transport issues previously. Ms Greening has since offered support to her daughter Agnes

Following complaints by the hospital medic and Dorothy's daughter Agnes, Harmoni spent more than two months investigating the doctor. He left the company last week although the organisation's internal inquiry 'found no indication of any alcohol or drug abuse'. Ms Seecoomar, a teacher from West London, said her mother had suffered unnecessary distress and pain in her final hours. She told MailOnline: 'My mother suffered because her breathing was becoming more laboured. This could have been alleviated. Any competent doctor would have seen that she was not getting enough oxygen. This doctor was incoherent and his eyes were severely bloodshot. It wasn't just me, two of my mother's carers were there at the time. My mother was using quite a noisy oxygen concentrator.’ He said: "Is she on oxygen?" I said: "Are you ok doctor?", because clearly he wasn't. 'He called the registrar at St Georges hospital and obviously couldn't answer his questions, he was rambling, so I took the phone and spoke to the registrar myself and I said, "look this man is incapable and I'm frightened" 'My mother remained in discomfort. I hoped they would send somebody else after I had reported this doctor as being drunk. I had to call Harmoni the next day as the GP surgery was shut,and I was unable to get a respiratory nurse to attend. I said, "can you send another doctor but one who isn't drunk?" The call handler refused to process that call and passed me to her supervisor who told me she would get a doctor to call me back.’ 'This didn't happen. Later that day - my mother's breathing deteriorated so I called an ambulance, which arrived about 10 minutes after my call.  I was told that Harmoni had called an ambulance in response to my telephone call in the morning, however, unless the ambulance they called arrived after the one I called, this is just not true.'

Agnes Seecoomar claims her mother Dorothy died after being in the care of a drunk out-of-hours doctor

Ms Seecoomar said she had contacted Harmoni on September 4, almost a fortnight after her mother's death to ask if they had an update on their investigation. She said: 'I was told, "actually we are just about to send a letter asking for your mother's authorisation to investigate". I said, "well that's difficult because my mother is dead".' Ms Seecoomar added: 'The experience with the doctor was frightening.  'People think we still have an NHS - but we don't, we have commissioners and providers. The providers are increasingly private companies whose primary concern is profit. It seems to be a competition to see who can provide healthcare at the lowest possible cost. This raises huge questions about quality and accountability as illustrated by what happened to my mother. The reality is that we a National Health Service in name only.'

NHS South West London, the primary care trust, which contracted Harmoni to provide out-of-hours care, has launched an inquiry. The General Medical Council, the body, which licenses doctors, has also opened an inquiry and the healthcare watchdog the Care Quality Commission is examining the case. A spokesperson for NHS South West London said: 'We are in the process of fully investigating these serious allegations and now have permission from Ms Seecoomar to review her mother’s medical records; we are doing so as a matter of urgency.  'The results of this full and thorough investigation and the subsequent action we take as a result, will be shared with Ms Seecoomar as soon as it is complete. We have spoken to Ms Seecoomar and reassured her that we are dealing with these very serious issues about the out-of-hours GP service and a healthcare professional at the highest level within our organisation. We would like to express our sincere condolences to Ms Seecoomar and reassure her that we are doing all we can to get this matter resolved as quickly as possible.'

A spokesman for Harmoni said: 'As the largest provider of out-of-hours urgent care in the country, we pride ourselves on offering the highest levels of patient care and satisfaction. Any patient concern with our service is treated very seriously and thoroughly investigated. The GP involved in this particular patient complaint has undergone an extensive performance review as part of a very thorough investigation into Ms Seecoomar’s complaint.  We have contacted Ms Seecoomar and did invite her to meet with us so we could share with her the outcome of this review and discuss any further concerns she may have. Ms Seecoomar declined this invitation so we have sent her our findings in writing, which include confirmation that the doctor no longer works for Harmoni. At a very early stage in our investigation the doctor involved consented to undergo a thorough testing procedure for drug and alcohol misuse. All these tests came back negative and there is no evidence at all to support any suggestion or allegation that this doctor was intoxicated whilst on duty.'

( Above) Dr Stuart Gray, whose father David Gray was killed by out-of-hours German doctor Daniel Ubani (below) when he was administered with 10 times the recommended maximum of diamorphine

In one notorious case of an out-of-hours doctor blunder, pensioner David Gray died after locum Dr Daniel Ubani gave him 10 times the recommended maximum amount of diamorphine to treat pain in his kidneys. The German doctor had failed an English test for one primary care trust, so had simply applied to work at another. Following his father's tragic death, Dr Stuart Gray, had called for all doctors to undergo checks on their clinical competence.

After Dr Ubani was struck off in 2010, the British Medical Association, the General Medical Council (GMC) and former Health Secretary Andrew Lansley all rushed to condemn the loophole in EU law that meant the language skills of doctors trained in Europe could not be tested before they practised in the UK. Records show that coroners' courts and the GMC have since dealt with dozens of cases around the country in which the services have been involved in the deaths of patients, including at least eight in one year.

 Source: Daily Mail UK  

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