Unbelievably low standards in British medicine

Blood-pressure tests are about the most routine aspect of medical practice that there is -- but not in Britain, apparently. It is usually very difficult to change doctors in Britain and I myself noted a "take it or leave it" attitude among British GPs when I was there. In Australia it is as easy as pie to change doctors and Australian doctors are much more polite, attentive and obliging. Funny that! So I am not really surprised that the complacent attitude of British GPs extended to the low level of care described below. A simple blood-pressure test could have saved a life

The family of a documentary film-maker who died of heart failure at the age of 43 won six-figure damages yesterday from three doctors who failed to diagnose and treat his worsening condition. Nick Rossiter, who created the popular art programme Sister Wendy’s Odyssey, had been suffering “increasingly severe” hypertension before he had a fatal cardiac arrest in July 2004.

Mr Justice Foskett, sitting at the High Court, was told that Mr Rossiter’s death would have been avoided had Pearl Chin, Cathy Benson and Sharon Alikhani, GPs at the Westbourne Grove Surgery, West London, prescribed appropriate medication from December 2003 onwards. The three GPs, who treated Mr Rossiter between 2001 and his death, admitted to a breach of duty in having failed to spot and appropriately treat his hypertension.

Mr Rossiter left a widow, Beatrice Ballard, a celebrated television producer in her own right, and two daughters, Alice, 11, and Pandora, 9. The amount of damages was not disclosed in court but Ms Ballard, the daughter of the novelist J. G. Ballard, said: “No amount of money can replace my children’s father, but it will help in securing their future.” The judge described the loss as “almost impossible to value”.

The court was told that Mr Rossiter had visited Westbourne Grove Surgery two months before his death, but left without receiving a vital blood-pressure test. The defence had argued that Mr Rossiter may not have completed his course of medication even if he had been prescribed it. But Ms Ballard’s barrister, Henry Whitcomb, dismissed the claim on the grounds that Mr Rossiter was a highly intelligent man who had given up smoking and was “absolutely devoted to his family”.

After the decision, the family’s solicitor, John Pickering, said: “The end of this case comes as a huge relief to Nicholas’s wife, and will provide a secure future for their daughters. Doctors Chin, Benson and Alikhani . . . did not treat him with antihypertensive medication as they should have done. “His family are relieved that this matter is now closed and they can move on with their lives.”

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