• Wrongly attributing a patient’s fever and confusion to a urinary tract infection (based on a urine dipstick) or a chest infection (based on a few crackles in the chest) without strong evidence |
• Failure to realise that a patient has a febrile illness, just because they are not febrile on admission |
• Ignoring a relative’s complaint that a patient is “not quite right”, sleepy or lethargic, just because the Glasgow coma score is 15 (the coma score is a very crude tool) |
• Wrongly attributing clouding of consciousness to drugs or alcohol, without good evidence to do so |
• Failure to properly investigate a patient with a fever and seizure, following which they do not recover consciousness |
• Failure to do a lumbar puncture, even though there are no contraindications |