# Making a complaint against a Dr in Spain.



## redbaron1981 (Mar 12, 2014)

Hello,

My first post on this forum although I have used this forum for information for many years.

At the start of this year I went to see a ENT specialist in Malaga Province due to having two perforated ear drums from a diving accident. The appointment was more of a followup as it had happened outside of Spain and I had been reassured by other doctors that my condition would heal up by itself.

Upon finding a private ENT Dr and visiting him I was told that my condition was not healing and that my problem was that I had a sinus issue. It was confirmed by a CT scan and I was told that I would need to have sinus surgery to allow for my ears to heal and also that the doctor would not carry out any surgery on my ears (should they need it) without having the sinus surgery done first. I was surprised by this since I have been a Diver for around 15 years and have never had any pressure related problems with my sinuses.

The sinus surgery was carried out and i went for a review with the same doctor 6 weeks post surgery. I was congratulated and told that my sinus surgery had been a success, and then the Dr immediately sat down and asked when I would like to book in for the surgery to repair my ear drums. Since the idea of having the surgery in the first place was to help my ears heal I was surprised how quickly the Dr wanted to make an appointment for more surgery without checking the condition of my ears first. I asked if he could have a look at my ears first before deciding surgery and so was given a 2 sec glance in both ears with a camera and that was that.

The alarm bells starting ringing and so I arranged for a second opinion with a Dr in Gibraltar. I was told that it was not unusual for patients to come to see this Dr for second opinions from the first Dr and that my first Dr had a reputation for putting patients through surgery without it being completely necessary. As you can guess I was told that in my circumstances the sinus surgery I had been put through was not necessary. It was then recommend that due to the severity of my perforated ear drums that I should see a Professor on Harley St London who had many more years experience than anyone nearby.

After a full consultation from the Professor I was told for a second time that the surgery that I had on my sinuses was also unnecessary. I have since returned back to Spain after surgery in London and so far everything is healing up well. 

As you may well imagine I am very annoyed for having been put through surgery unnecessarily by the first Dr but also he has severely delayed my recovery time. I have been put out of pocked by not only medical fees but also by delaying my return to work by some 2-3 months. After asking around to try to find more intelligence about this Dr I have found a lot of people who have had the exact same surgical procedure carried out by the Dr in fact one friend of mine described waiting for surgery and being surrounded by other patients having the same procedure.

I now would like to do two things in response to what happened to me. This Dr from what I can see is putting many patients through unnecessary risk by carrying out sinus surgery when it is not really required. If I were to let bygones be bygones and I was to later find out that a patient had died whilst having unnecessary surgery I would have to carry some guilt for not reporting my findings. So I would like to report the Dr to the Spanish equivalent of the General Medical Council. Secondly due to the unnecessary risk I was exposed to along with having paid for unnecessary surgery and the loss of earnings whilst recovering I would like to file a claim against the Dr for compensation for the above and also bring this to the publics attention so that he and other Drs cannot continue putting members of the public through unnecessary risk for financial gain.

Does anyone on this forum have any experience with these areas or perhaps have been through a similar situation who can advise me on a possible starting point with this? If so your feedback would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Was it a private doctor or were you using the state healthcare service?

If the latter, you can raise a complaint with the Junta de Andalucia health service here:

Quejas, Reclamaciones y Denuncias 

I'm not sure what happens in the private sector. I suggest you raise it with your health insurance provider if you have one, otherwise you may have to go to the police and make a _denuncia_ against the individual doctor.


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## redbaron1981 (Mar 12, 2014)

Yes unfortunately he was a private Dr so a denuncia might be necessary. I'm not sure what the equivalent of the GMC is in Spain. A few people have told me that all Dr's must be registered under a provincial university but theres little information online about this.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

I have 2 ideas, but they are only ideas 
Professionals like lawyers and doctors belong to "colegios" and these are official bodies. Perhaps you can find which area colegio corresponds to the area you are in from this list, contact them, and find out how to make a complaint.
Colegios Oficiales de Médicos de España | CGCOM

Failing that, your local OMIC
OMIC: OFICINA DEL CONSUMIDOR


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