"Lack of backup at GP clinic"

Last month, around late afternoon, my partner visited the Our GP Medical Centre in our area for treatment of a suspected Urinary Tract Infection. The doctor prescribed Trimethoprim and asked for a urine specimen which I believe my partner was not able to produce on the spot. I visited the clinic the next morning to hand in the specimen. To my knowledge, the doctor treating my partner does not work on Fridays and thus would not have seen the urine test results. The following week, the doctor was restricted to home quarantine, I believe because of their child’s school quarantine and was apparently unable to access their work until the following week.

After several days of mild fever and feeling unwell, on the afternoon of Wednesday the next week, my partner had a temperature of 39 degrees and we booked a 'Teleconsult' with the GP for the next day. Early on the morning of the next day, I noticed my partner breathing heavily but very shallowly, panting. I tried to wake them but found they were only semi-responsive. I then called 000 for an ambulance as I was seriously concerned.

An ambulance arrived promptly and took them to the Emergency Department of the Wesley Hospital after another hospital, which is much closer to our residence, declined to take my partner, possibly because of Covid fears.

At The Wesley, my partner was found to have severe Sepsis and was treated in the Emergency Department and moved, later that day, to the Intensive Care Unit. In the ICU, my partner experienced several episodes of what was labelled Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy and Atrial Fibrillation. They remained in the ICU until early the next week when they were moved to a cardiac ward.

Because of the Brisbane Covid lockdown, I was not permitted to visit my partner in hospital until the late afternoon on the weekend, effectively four days after their admission.

My partner finally came home from hospital in the middle of the next week and is still relatively tired and weak.

My partner's GP called me later that week, saying they had been trying to call my partner the day before, about their urine test results. I informed the doctor of my partner's condition. The GP again called me the following week enquiring about my partner's condition. 

My issue is that all the suffering my partner, as well as the family, underwent with the Urosepsis and Myocardiopathy, could have been avoided in my opinion, if someone in the GP clinic had looked at my partner's urine test results on the day before the lockdown, or even on the next business day, and prescribed an antibiotic that was effective against the type of infection identified in the urine analysis.