DOCTOR REFUSES CALL

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27309, 27 March 1954, Page 2

DOCTOR REFUSES CALL

Negligence Alleged On Death Of Patient (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, March 25. A 75-year-old doctor who refused a call at 12.55 a.m. to a patient who later died, has been ordered to forfeit £5OO and his resignation from the National Health Service list has been accepted. The Lancashire Health Executive Council found that Dr. Malcolm Macleod had been grossly negligent and apathetic. A report showed that a coroner’s jury had returned a'n “accidental death” verdict on a 25-year-oid patient, with the cause of death given as “a oerforated duodenal ulcer accelerated by delay in obtaining medical aid.” Dr. Macleod said he thought it unnecessary for him to gp at 1 a.m., and that the relatives would call another doctor. “It did not occur to me. that they had called me to something that was worth while,” he said. “I had not the faintest idea what was wrong with him. I am knocked up at least once a week at night, and I regard tfiis as unnecessary.”