Medical & Wellness Center - Dr Van Maanen Margaret, Coorparoo, QLD

Terrible. I wouldn't trust her to look after an animal, let alone a human. She's deaf and yells, so she clearly needs a hearing aid. You have to wonder whether she can even hear what you're saying. Worse, she doesn't read the medical notes properly, so incorrectly prescribed Schedule 8 medications multiple times. She clearly needs to retire.

Unacceptable. I am a GP myself, and I was astounded by what a close friend of mine described. Today, Margaret refused to treat this lady who is currently being screened for cancer. It seems that Margaret did not consult with the pain team at the PA Hospital, which resulted in her making a large mistake with prescribing medication (at one time a few months ago, she prescribed 4 times the dosage amount she was supposed to be prescribed, which was, very luckily, caught by the pharmacist). This amount of medication would have been fatal. This was a very serious judgment error, which was rendered even worse by the fact my friend had nearly died back in May of liver and kidney failure, so another overdose of medication was even more likely to end in fatality. Allegedly, her excuse was that she did not get time for lunch on the two days she worked (gee a two day working week must be tough!), then tried to make her feel bad by saying she would do it on her day off, which she did not. She charged her $190 and told her that she would have called the PA Hospital for the next consultation, but when my friend requested a telehealth consult, she still had not managed to do it, yet charged her another large amount for some vague, non-comital advice and a couple of prescriptions (which were under-prescribed that time, because again, she did not read the exit report from the PA Hospital, much less the medication list provided by the PA nephrologist, which very clearly specified all of her medications). Meanwhile, my friend continued to pay a fortune to see her because her maternal family has a high rate of reproductive cancer, and being very vulnerable due to multiple complex illnesses, she did not realise that she was receiving less than satisfactory care. Yet, Margaret asked the male practice manager to inform my friend that she refused to treat her as a patient because she was in a very distressed state due to being unwell and without her medicine due to another GP's error! Since when did a bruised GP's ego trump taking into account the wellbeing and mental state of a lady who suffers from severe chronic pain, pulmonary embolism, DVT, recent kidney and liver failure (which nearly resulted in death), plus severe PTSD?! If that medical officer is so sensitive as to allow her personal feelings cloud her judgement, why did she not call my friend herself to tell her that the entire clinic refused to treat my friend because of hurt feelings? With such a thin skin and refusal to read patient medical records thoroughly before agreeing to treat such a complex patient, that GP clearly does not belong in medicine. Also, why could Margaret not telephone her own patient, and instead a rude man unknown to my friend to call on her behalf?! What a cruel thing to do to a patient, particularly one who is extremely vulnerable. I have been with her all day and she is, understandably, in a very distressed state. She has my full support in regards to seeking a full and independent investigation into what, in my medical opinion, looks very much like multiple counts of not exercising proper duty of care. Please do not trust this person with your life or the life of someone you love. Not safe.