The partner of a woman who died despite consulting eight doctors over four days has said that failings in out-of-hours care will claim more victims.

Angus MacKinnon said yesterday that the death of Penny Campbell, a 41-year-old journalist, showed that the system was not working.

Miss Campbell died just after Easter in 2005, from septicaemia that resulted from a minor operation a week earlier. Over the Easter weekend, as she became progressively more ill, she repeatedly rang doctors employed by Camidoc, the GP cooperative in North London.

But she was not offered appropriate care and died. A report into the circumstances surrounding Miss Campbell’s death was published yesterday.

Mr MacKinnon called for the one doctor among the eight found to have provided sub-standard care to be struck off the medical register.

Miss Campbell, from Islington, North London, had various conditions diagnosed by the GPs, including colic, flu and viral infections, an inquest was told last year.

The coroner ruled that the doctors contributed to her death because they failed to recognise the seriousness of her condition.

The report yesterday found that six GPs provided Miss Campbell with a “reasonable standard” of care but one, named as Dr Taik Chuah, did not explore her symptoms adequately. The investigation also found that the care offered by an eighth GP, Bengi Beyzade, could not be adequately assessed in retrospect. Camidoc said that the six cleared of wrongdoing will be able to work again after a review.

Dr Beyzade and Dr Chuah would have to go through a much more rigorous process involving a performance review with their primary care trust (PCT) if they wished to return to work, it said.

Mr MacKinnon, 40, said that the fact that the two doctors may be able to work again showed a “total lack of accountability” and was indicative of a wider problem regarding the work of doctors.

“To get justice where doctors have performed unprofessionally, to get justice for the victims of their incompetence, you have to sue them. That’s a broader problem within our health system.”

Rachel Tyndal, chief executive of Islington Primary Care Trust, which commissions Camidoc’s services, said: “There were failings in care and the systems to guarantee quality. The health service will respond to these. Islington PCT recognises the importance of out-of-hours services and is determined to learn lessons from this. We have already, and will continue, to do things differently as a result.”

The report said that the system of “safety netting” – where Miss Campbell was told to call back if she did not recover – was “seriously flawed”. Each of her calls to doctors was treated as an individual “episode”, with Miss Campbell having to recount her symptoms again and again.

Although Camidoc had put in place methods to transfer to a computerised records system, it failed to address existing risks.

The report also found that Camidoc was unprepared for its shift to a major out-of-hours provider of care.

Camidoc said: “The investigation into the death of Penny Campbell, and the report, has identified a number of recommendations to further improve the service we provide. We accept and will deliver all of the recommendations, many of which we are already in the process of implementing.”

The Department of Health conceded that lessons needed to be learnt but denied that it was a result of any change to out-of-hours care.

Mr MacKinnon called for a review of out-of-hours care. “If Tesco can open till midnight every night, why can’t our GPs?” he said.

Dead in a week
March 23: Miss Campbell was given an injection for haemorrhoids in 2005
March 24: She began to feel ill but thought it could be food poisoning
March 25: She called the consultant surgeon who gave her the injection and was told that she probably had a virus. She spoke to one Camidoc doctor by phone before visiting another at the St Pancras Camidoc branch about 8.30pm, and was told she had a viral illness
March 26: She spoke to two Camidoc doctors over the phone. That night her partner, Angus MacKinnon, arrived home at 11pm and became worried about his partner
March 27: Mr MacKinnon started to panic after noticing a rash on Miss Campbell. A doctor told her it was probably food poisoning
March 28: Miss Campbell phoned the doctor at about 5am, who told her that her abdominal pains were possibly caused by colic. She was later advised to go to A & E
March 29: She died in the intensive care unit at the Royal London Hospital

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