Young woman told she had flu dies

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/norfolk/7814506.stm

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A teenage mother died three days after an out-of-hours medical service said she had a bout of flu and should take paracetamol and drink plenty of fluids.

Clare Secker, 19, of Gorleston, Norfolk, died of bronchial pneumonia.

Her parents tried to contact their GP on Boxing Day but the surgery phone went through to an out-of-hours line.

Staff there said they were snowed under and thought Miss Secker had flu. Great Yarmouth and Waveney NHS Trust said an inquiry has been launched.

Parents Michael and Janice said they believed more should have been done, and that things could have been different if a doctor had been sent out.

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Clare Secker was told to take paracetamol and drink plenty of fluids

Miss Secker, who leaves her 11-month-old son Tyler, died on 29 December.

"I feel my daughter was let down badly," her father said.

The Seckers' GP Dr Tom Pace, senior partner at the Central Surgery in Gorleston, said he and his staff were upset by the death.

But Dr Pace was not critical of the advice issued by the out of hours service, TCN, based in Ipswich.

"I thought very hard and I think if I'd been on call I don't think the advice would have been very different," he said.

Dr Chris Price from the NHS trust, which contracts out the phone line to TCN, said strong action would be taken if any shortcomings in the out-of-hours service were revealed in an inquiry.

But he added: "We have every confidence in TCN as a provider of out-of-hours services."