A “kind and talented” young actress died days after after unknowingly consulting an associate instead of a fully qualified GP at her local practice, an inquest has heard.
Emily Chesteron, 30, tragically suffered a heart attack days following two GP appointments at the Vale Practice in Crouch End to report calf pain and shortness of breath.
She had moved from Salford to London with her partner to pursue her acting career.
Emily visited the practice believing she would be seen by a doctor but, unbeknownst to her, she consulted with a physician associated instead, an entry-level figure with basic medical training.
There, she received two misdiagnoses: her calf pain was mistaken for a sprain, while she was told her shortness of breath was caused by a combination of Covid and anxiety, which resulted in the prescription of medication to slow her heartbeat.
She went on to develop a pulmonary embolism, which led to her death last October 31.
An inquest at St Pancras Coroner’s Court in March this year concluded that Emily would have likely survived had she been given the appropriate treatment for her condition.
Coroner Mary Hassell said: “She should have been immediately referred to a hospital emergency unit. If she had been on either occasion, the likelihood is she would have been treated for a pulmonary embolism and would have survived.”
“We lost our precious, beautiful, kind, loving, talented and irreplaceable daughter, and this must not be allowed to happen to any other family,” her distraught parents told the Manchester Evening News.
“We feel extremely let down by the care provided by the GP practice,” they added.
The pair are now calling for it to be mandatory for GP practices to make patients aware they are not seeing a qualified doctor, as well as closer monitoring of physician associates.
Labour politician Barbara Keely, who is also the couple’s MP, raised the issue in parliament last week, urging the government to act quickly to review the role of physician associates and learn lessons from Emily’s death.
She told the MEN: “My constituent’s daughter, Emily Chesterton, died of a pulmonary embolism after having been seen twice and diagnosed twice by the same Physician Associate at her local GP Practice.
“This went against the stated protocol of the GP Practice that patients should not see a Physician Associate twice for the same condition.
“This case raises serious questions about the wider use of Physician Associates in the NHS, and particularly about allowing the provision of unsupervised, one-to-one consultations with Physician Associates in General Practice.
“The Government must now move quickly to regulate Physician Associates and to learn from the events which led to the death of Emily Chesterton. This is an extremely pressing issue now that the Government is planning to triple the number of Physician Associates.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan makes clear that physician associates and other associate positions can provide vital support in providing medical care and anaesthetic services to patients and can help reduce pressure on doctors, freeing up their time to focus on tasks only they are qualified to do.”
