A St Andrews woman has been threatened with removal from her medical practice after criticising it on Facebook.
Shanna Pitbladdo has been a patient at Pipeland Medical Practice, based at St Andrews Community Hospital, for more than 16 years.
But she was warned her days there may be numbered due to a comment she made on social media.
In the post on a private St Andrews Facebook group with more than 3,000 members, she claimed standards at the practice were falling.
She called on others of the same view to get in touch.
Letter from St Andrews GP practice claimed patient relationship had ‘broken down’
Just days after the post, which was later deleted from the forum, she received a letter from Pipeland.
The letter – seen by The Courier – said the online post was an “entirely unhelpful manner” to raise concerns.
And it claimed the patient/clinical relationship had “broken down”.
It added: “Should we feel this is irreconcilable, we can exercise our right to remove you from as a patient from our practice list.”
Shanna, 31, says she relies on the practice after being diagnosed with functional neurological disorder (FND) in 2020 – which regularly causes her issues with speech, sight and partial paralysis.
She said she had become unhappy with the surgery after claims there had been mistakes with prescriptions and difficulties in securing appointments.
She says she raised issues with the practice directly in February but was unimpressed with the response.
Shanna said: “My post on social media was a bid to make contact with others feeling the same way.
“In no way did I write anything that was either offensive or derogatory.
“Neither did I name anyone.
“All I did was express an opinion about the service levels having already raised concerns with the practice directly.
“Given that the practice is aware of my complex medical care needs, it seems Pipeland is more concerned about its image than of my actual medical care.”
Shanna says she has now been forced to find an alternative GP practice, though Pipeland insists it has not followed through with removing her from its list.
‘There are well-established ways to raise concerns’
A statement issued by the practice said: “Where patients are unhappy about any aspect of their care, there are well-established ways to enable them to raise their concerns.
“This can be addressed directly with our practice or through the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman should they wish to.
“The vast majority of patients who we care for are very happy with standard of care we provide.
“Patients who are not are freely able to express their opinion about our services in any way they wish, publicly or otherwise.
“Pipeland Medical Practice has never removed any patient from its list due to critical comments made on social media.”
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