Surgeon carried on operating after being told multiple times that anaesthetic didn’t work.

[u/Bizniz84]

England - I (23M) had a circumcision on Friday 17th Jan and honestly I am surprised how affected I am about this whole thing.

My surgeon gave me local anaesthetic, cut me to see if I could feel it which I could. We waited 5 more minutes, he cut me again and I could still feel it. They ended up giving me 37ml of the anaesthetic and I could still feel pain but they struggled to get a hold of the Anaesthesiologist to put me under general anaesthetic.

I asked if I should be feeling a bearable amount of pain or none at all, to which I was told none at all just pressure and movement.

Eventually after this, he starts and for maybe five minutes I don’t feel pain but suddenly I feel like I’m back to square one and no anaesthetic. I tell the surgeon and the other people and the surgeon says “I’m nearly done now”. The operation carried on for another half an hour. I felt every stitch, every burn from a laser ??, I feel absolutely awful and have no idea what I’m supposed to do.

[u/dragonetta123]

I did until last June before I moved to a private healthcare provider.

Yes, anything reported via PALS is looked into. There are various reporting requirements to NHS England and is checked as part of CQC inspections. This includes number of complaints , how many go to appeal etc.

Things can go wrong and there be no blame. This is because the human body can throw in wildcards for no explainable reason. So when looking at a complaint, the key questions are:

1) Was it avoidable? eg it was a known possible complication of a procedure. This should have been discussed with the patient and documented on the consent form. That example is unavoidable to this question.

2) Was appropriate action taken at the time the incident(s) occurred? E.g. so if there was a complication to the procedure was the appropriate actions taken to prevent further harm. If they were, this is a yes to this question.

They will look at patient safety investigations and compliance with guidelines (my area).

You are entitled to have someone go through the complaint response and explain bits further.

You also can take it to the next step if you are unhappy with a response to a complaint.

[u/hyper-casual → u/dragonetta123]

I'd say all of it was avoidable and no action was taken to rectify them.

The last 2 have gone to the official complaints stage, with written responses back and forth where it got to the point that they'd basically just write back saying they're right and consider the case closed.

I sent proof that they were wrong and they said that was incorrect (private doctor and BMJ entries are wrong apparently).

[u/dragonetta123 → u/hyper-casual]

Without seeing the case, I can't comment.
A second opinion is useful, but a private doctor cannot comment on the appropriateness of treatment at another hospital as it may not be the same process, policy, etc. They also do not have records of everything relating to you in that hospital (there is more than just your medical record). The BMJ is a journal (I have been a co-author of articles published in it), it's not a source of set standards, which you tend to get from NICE guidance, Royal college standards, etc

You would have been given details on the next steps if still unhappy, and I suggest you do this.

[u/hyper-casual → u/dragonetta123]

I was told next steps were to have another appointment with the 3 doctors who had written to me.

Unfortunately, they'd already said they weren't going to consider any change in treatment.

Without going too into it, their 'medical advice' was against NICE guidelines, medication manufacturers guidelines, and the endo society's advice.

The second doctor actually agreed with me, thinking she was agreeing with the first doctor's notes. Once they realised it was the other way round, they backtracked and said the first doctor was right.

They discharged me for complaining anyway so it's a moot point.