In the last few weeks we have had complaints from patients which have the common theme that they were told something by other medical attendants which we did not agree with.

One patient told us that A&E department staff had said that we should change their blood pressure treatment. Another reported that NHS 111 had suggested a treatment which we were not willing to prescribe, and a third patient was frustrated because they had been told by an urgent care centre that we should obtain and discuss the result of an investigation that they ordered.

The common denominator in all these examples of friction is that the patients all felt that the opinion of some other agency was to be preferred to ours.

We are senior doctors and are responsible for our own prescribing and treatment of our patients. There is no hierarchy in that we are not duty bound to follow the advice or instructions of anyone else. Naturally we tend to take the advice of hospital specialists to whom we refer, because in most cases it would be perverse to refer you and then not act on their recommendations. However, when a patient has sought advice elsewhere on his or her own initiative, we have no duty to follow the instructions or recommendations that were made.

This observation is also applicable to any opinion or requests that you may obtain from a private GP service.

It is also the clear responsibility of doctors to convey and interpret the results of investigations that they order themselves. To illustrate this principle, consider how ridiculous it would be if we requested an X ray at Heatherwood hospital and then maintained that it was the hospital doctors’ responsibility to discuss the results with you.

The skilled people at out of hours or in an accident and emergency are entitled to their opinion, but the fact that they expressed it to you does not make them right, nor is such an opinion in any way superior to ours, nor are we bound by it. We will continue to make our own decisions about the care that we provide for you, and we remain accountable for them.