GP’s reliance on patient’s self-examination during telehealth consult was a mistake, says coroner
A GP’s elderly patient would not have died from a bowel obstruction had the GP insisted she attend for a face-to-face consult rather than guide her through a self-examination via telehealth, a coroner has said.
After vomiting and experiencing abdominal pain for two days, 70-year-old Virginia Weekes arranged a telehealth appointment with her Adelaide-based GP in early April 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
A chronic smoker with several comorbidities including COPD and peripheral vascular disease, Ms Weekes had undergone recent surgery for a bowel obstruction, caused by a femoral hernia.
But she insisted that this time it was “just gastro”, declining the GP’s offer made during the telehealth consult – which occurred against a background of newly public health recommendations for people to stay home except for vital reasons – that she should come in for a face-to-face consult at his practice,
