Feeling saddened that Vets, Cameron and Grieg felt the need to hide behind their insurance company rather than agree that their standard of care was not the professional level one would expect. Compla... Read More
Feeling saddened that Vets, Cameron and Grieg felt the need to hide behind their insurance company rather than agree that their standard of care was not the professional level one would expect. Complaint sent to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons now.
To: Cameron Grieg Veterinary Surgeons, Ardmohr, Stirling Road, Milnathort KY13 9XR
Dear George or Ian.
It is unfortunate that we feel the need to make such a complaint but in all honesty we feel that there has been a catalogue of errors in your practice over a sustained period of time that it needs to be raised.
1: You will remember that we wrote to you back in 2014 where your practice had failed to diagnose Foxy (Japanese Spitz Bitch) with a life threatening Pyometra that was diagnosed in under 40 minutes at the Royal Dick. We wrote to you and a verbal apology was made with an offer to waive some of the costs that we had incurred.
2: The same Foxy was seen to by your Practice earlier on this year over a suspected leg injury. Painkillers and time passed but the injury never healed. On further investigation in June this year, your Practice diagnosed by X-Ray Terminal Bone Cancer. We were obviously traumatised that something that was initially diagnosed a leg injury was now terminal. We requested a biopsy and on the return in July we found out that it wasn't bone cancer but a surface Tumour and we were advised to get the leg removed. We agreed and on the allotted day for surgery we were informed that the cancer had spread significantly to her throat and chest and the leg operation was cancelled. X-rays were the only evidence of this. We have now accepted that we will lose Foxy in a short period of time but often wonder what options would have still had been available to us if the correct diagnosis and investigations (Ultrasound, MRI, etc) at the first consultation. At this time Foxy still is still bright but obviously in pain with her tumour'd leg. We are getting a second opinion on whether (for her comfort) we should still remove the leg.
3: Frostie (Japanese Spitz Bitch) attended your Practice shortly before we left for holiday in early August for not eating, sickness and bad diarrhoea. It appears that the consultation was "lightweight" and no blood samples, x-rays, ultrasound or cat scans taken for analysis. The prognosis was either hepatitis or a bad gastroenteritis. Tablets were issued with a watching brief.
We left to travel to the Lake district on Saturday the 5th of August and on arriving in Windermere we noted that Frostie had become lifeless and her gums were sticky, a sign of dehydration. We rushed her to Oakhill Veterinary Group and left her overnight to have some fluids. You can imagine how surprised we were to find out that after a scan the consultant had diagnosed Pyometra! The question has to be asked how the Cameron and Grieg Practice failed to spot another Pyometra less that 3 years on from the issue noted above with Foxy in part 1?
In reviewing my communication to your practice in 2014 there was two questions/suggestions highlighted re the Foxy Pyometra:
1: Lack of a blood test on the Saturday. In hindsight, it would have probably been more than useful if Foxy had a blood test on the first visit on the Saturday.
2: Misdiagnosis of the Pyometra: The consultant vet at the Royal Dick Vet Hospital asked a number of questions relating to her season/spayed/given birth etc. I do not think the same questions were asked at Cameron Grieg and it was obvious that within 40 minutes the vet at the Dick Vet knew exactly what they were looking for. When we got home we had a number of calls with friends who all have dogs. It appears that knowledge of Pyometra was common enough to them all, and when we researched the symptoms on the internet we could not believe how this was missed.
It appears that Cameron and Grieg have not learned from the 2014 incident that nearly cost us Foxy and which, in 2017, nearly cost us the life of Frostie.
Whilst Frostie was recovering in Windermere, we explained to our Vet there what she had been diagnosed with by Cameron Grieg. They issued a full report (which we are happy to provide) explaining there was no hepatitis and the stomach problems was probably due to the inflammation of the Pyometra. He noted that they removed 1kg of pus and tissue from Frostie. The cost of this emergency operation was £1300, along with £50 of diagnosis/tablets that Frostie received at Cameron Grieg. We keep asking ourselves why such a well known and routine condition needs to wait until the dog is at death's door and we need emergency care at top cost to resolve it?
We think that it is only fair that your Practice is allowed to respond to the above before we go the RCVS Complaint Process. We think that 14 days is a suitable time to reply but would understand if you need further time on request to collate your response. Read Less