Palms Doctors named and shamed 

Source: Close UpThe Palms doctors missed 44 year old Kay Shirkey's condition

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The Health and Disability Commissioner has taken the rare move of naming and shaming a medical centre that repeatedly failed to diagnose a patient.

The Palms Doctors in Palmerston North missed 44-year-old Kay Shirkey's condition for so long her spinal cord was almost severed, and she's now incontinent.

Two and a half years ago Shirkey was an active 42-year-old who managed a busy Bunnings store and played golf and netball.

But today she can only walk a few metres at a time, and has given up work. She says she misses the little things in life.

"Just the things that people take for granted, like walking to the shop and getting some milk," she told Close Up .

She first went to the Palms Medical Centre with a sore back in March 2007 and was given anti-inflammatories.

But when she started going numb down one side of her body, she kept going back, seeing six different doctors over seven months.

They told her she had RSI, arthritis, even depression.

Her husband eventually took her to another doctor, who finally diagnosed the problem.

Shirkey says the problem was bone growing into her spinal cord and cutting it off.

"Because it was left for so long undiagnosed, it caused permanent damage from the nerves dying," she says.

She had surgery, but the damage was already done. She is now on ACC and wears a foot brace to help her walk.

Rare move

Health and Disability commissioner Ron Paterson investigated and, in a rare move, named the medical centre involved.

"I think the people of Palmerston North have a right to know that this had happened at the Palms Medical centre ... It's good to see improvements that are happening, but they have a right to know," he says.

And the commissioner has advice for anyone visiting a GP.

"Ask to see your regular doctor and if you're not going to be seeing your regular doctor, they need to have a system that if there's any problem that hasn't been fixed up, hasn't been resolved, it needs to be flagged in your file."

In a statement, clinical director Wayne Hayter says the Palms now encourages patients to see their regular GP, has improved its systems and three doctors are doing specialist GP training.

But it has all come too late for Shirkey. She is now encouraging others to demand more from their GPs.