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Outcome of complaints by patients due to the refusal of Primary Care Physicians to agree to a treatment request

Abstract:

Objective: To analyse the frequency of complaints due to the refusal of Primary Care Physicians to indicate a diagnostic test, treatment, or referral requested by a patient. Methods: Observational, retrospective study was conducted by analysing the complaints filed in a Primary Care Area during the years 2016, 2017, and 2018. Results: A total of 378 complaints were included. Of these, 30 (8%) were justified in the refusal by the doctors to a request of the patient (28 addressed to general practitioners and 2 to paediatricians). The most frequent related to the request was for a treatment (18 [60%]) followed by the request for diagnostic tests (9 [30%]). While the total number of claims increased by 151%, the relative weight of the claims for not responding to a patient's request was reduced (2016, 8/70, 11.4%; 2017, 11/132, 8.3%; and 2018, 11/176, 6.3%). No professional liability claims were filed. Conclusions: Complaints for rejecting patient requests increased slightly, but tends to decrease their relative weight when considering the volume of complaints.