GPs warned not to miss meningitis symptoms after diagnostic failures cost £22m
03.08.10
Family doctors are being warned not to miss the signs of meningitis after research found £22million has been paid in legal claims for failures and delay in diagnosing symptoms.
Children and young people are particularly at risk of death or long-term harm including brain damage and serious disability.
The condition develops quickly and can kill within four hours - with misdiagnosis costing as much as £6.8million, according to the Medical Defence Union (MDU).
An inquest last week into the death of a 25-year-old woman in Milton Keynes from meninigitis found she died after a 'breakdown in communication' between doctors.
Joanne Dowling, who was denied antibiotics that could have treated the illness, sent photographs by text from her hospital bed showing the telltale rash spreading across her body.
Her condition deteriorated and, after sending 42 texts to her mother and a friend, she died 14 hours after being admitted.
GPs are now being sent new guidance by the MDU, which represents doctors accused of negligence, in a bid to improve the accuracy of diagnosis.
The MDU has paid out £22milion to settle claims for delay in diagnosing the infection since 1998 - on just 34 cases.
Read the full article in the Daily Mail (external link)
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