Legal Obligation for GPs

to see all children under five

in person. Not Telemedicine.

MANDATORY FACE-TO-FACE
GP  APPOINTMENTS
FOR KIDS UNDER FIVE

  • Legal obligation for GPs to see all children under five years of age
    in person.

  • The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health warns that young children’s conditions can often be misinterpreted over the phone or video.

Background


Parents' experience


Boy was just two years of age, when a phone consultation led to a tragic misdiagnosis. His parents were told he had Gastroenteritis and were advised to “keep trying to get fluids into him”. 


When his condition worsened, they called 111 again, and were offered an appointment later that day. But the boy aged 2 years declined so rapidly that they rushed him straight to hospital, where he suffered two cardiac arrests and passed away.


A post-mortem revealed the 2 year old boy had a twisted bowel, which had caused his organs to fail.


If he had been examined in person, doctors could have caught this in time. But at just two years old, he couldn’t tell us what was wrong with him.