To expect this employee to make appointments in her own time?

[Womanager]

Name changed for this.

I manage an employee with various long term health conditions. She works part time (mornings only), but it seems like every time she has a hospital appointment, she makes it in the mornings so she has to request time off work to attend. We have a policy regarding paid time off for appointments, but this women seems to be abusing it.

WIBU to ask her to make appointments in her own time?

As I already stated, I am a Finance Director, not a HR director. There is very good reason these are two very separate departments and qualifications.

If you require definitions then I suggest you read up on the responsibility of the two roles. My legal requirements surround the financial function and commercial operation of a business. HR and employment law do not fall under the remit of a Finance Director, hence it is a different department! So clearly it is yourself who is clueless.

Have any recent posters actually bothered to read ANY of the thread?
OP posted a reverse to get opinions........

Is she actually working the hours that she's paid to do?

I know that i wasnt conversing with the OP.

I think there is too big a gap between employers finding you not fit for work and the criteria for ESA

@myrtleWilson clearly you have no concept of the differentiation between employment law and Chartered Accountancy.

Doesn't seem like you know what an audit involves either!

You dont know me yet you post such childish pathetic comments questioning my ability to do my job. Says more about you than it does about me when you don't know the difference between HR and Accountancy.

I think the OP came to the wrong place for advice and she should have gone straight to an employment law solicitor. Not one person here has actually cited what the law states about this including yourself.

I'm also done with this site. What a waste of time.

It has also not gone unnoticed but whenever there is a "how can we save the NHS thread on here it becomes inundated with posts about how individual members of the public abuse it.

Well a fair amount of the abuse seems to to coming from employers (as shown here) who expect NHS appointments to always be out of work time Ditto schools + schools wanting parents to take up GPs time getting sick notes.

Next time i see an NHS thread started im going to make damn sure these are included.

@Womanager call ACAS to obtain solid advice as to where you stand in terms of the law.

I spoke to my husband earlier (solicitor). He states that you must give her time off if she has a disability. However, it can be unpaid as the disability act 2010 does not specify that it must be paid. Hopefully that will allow you to pay for her cover.

Nadia the OP IS the employee The thread is/was a reverse.

@FloofenHoofen - aren’t you quite the charmer? You made a very broad statement, and didn’t say you were only referring to your little corner of the world. I was just making the point that the service you referred to wasn’t available in an entire country of the UK. There was no indication at that point as to where the OP was based.

The people on here that are saying I am horrible etc would be the same people crying down the phone or threatening legal action when their salary wasnt paid on time.

I wouldn't be crying but I would certainly be annoyed with the company of only one person could do the wages. Regardless, it is your comments about sick people "taking the piss" or being a "nuisance" which make you sound horrible.

I once tried to change an appointment from the hospital and it was 4
Months later, maybe she has no choice

There is a definite need for a debate on disability benefits and accommodations for illness and disability in the workplace not to mention reasonable expectations of NHS clinics.

it will be good if the hospital clinic for her particular condition only runs in the morning?
Enrgtech

I think you should make a time sheet and record all your hours, work completed, the extra time you put in and document it all. In half hour chunks. Then pass it to your employer every month and show them how much you are working.

Date. Time slot. Work completed. Which class/child/group.

I would also make a record of all my appointments across the year so they can see the balance of appointments.

Record everything. They are being unreasonable.

There is a definite need for a debate on disability benefits and accommodations for illness and disability in the workplace not to mention reasonable expectations of NHS clinics.

Very much so, because at the moment there is this massive gap that disabled people are shoved into, where employers (as demonstrated by NadiaX ) think that they shouldn't have to provide any support or give and if someone is off more than the Bradford factor allows, you should sack then, whereas the DWP thinks that unless you're physically incapable of pressing a button once a week you should be in full time employment (and absolutely will not give anyone ESA because they need a hospital check up twice a month) which leaves disabled people screwed.

Not to mention massively unrealistic expectations of the NHS and NHS workers - the service is already struggling and apparently it needs to find the staff and time to accommodate appointments on demand?

I would personally, btw, like something like the German system where every company above a certain size has to employ X% disabled workers. In addition, disability benefits work on a sliding scale so some workers may be assessed as only being able to work part time, or be limited in their working capacity and so get some benefits that their part time wage or whatever is expected to top up. But right now we don't have that and instead just have this stupid buck passing system which fucks over the most vulnerable absolutely.

She doesn't make the appointment. The hospital make the appointment. Be glad you don't have to live with her illnesses.

There is a definite need for a debate on disability benefits and accommodations for illness and disability in the workplace not to mention reasonable expectations of NHS clinics.

Absolutely agree with you.

For those saying the OP should change their appointments - I have been trying to re arrange an outpatient appointment for 10 days now (because the original appointment was changed by the hospital and has been moved from August to December and my GP says that is too long). I phone the number multiple times a day and I just get a recorded message stating the lines are busy and then cuts off.

That's how easy it is to re arrange appointments in the NHS.

DecomposingComposers even when you do get through the secretary will have to pass a message to the consultant who will have to sit down and read your notes and it's anyone's guess how long that process will take.

This isn't even getting through to the secretary - this is to the appointments line. So anyone who wants to re arrange an appointment that has been sent to them through the post has to phone this number to re book. You simply can't get through. I don't know if it has been switched off or if they are just so busy but either way I don't know how people are meant to just re arrange their appointment to a more acceptable time for their employer I don't know.

I'd love some people on this thread to shadow a patient as they navigate around the NHS.

Phone the office directly, all the appointments line can do is put you through there

Ask the switchboard to put you through To the secretary for your consultant. I always find that a much better way of getting things sorted

Unless of course its a department where the secretaries don't have access to the clinic appointments. I temped in a office like that once and it was shit.

No one can work out who the secretary is - I kid you not. I spent 3 hours being passed from pillar to post trying to contact the secretary. Finally I went to PALS. They denied that this could possibly happen - until they themselves tried.

Apparently I now have to wait until next week, at which point they can raise a complaint (though they told me that last week too).

Regardless of what happens in my case, the fact remains that the appointment booking line is not accessible so it's not possible to re book to a more convenient time.

Maybe the secretary has left and no one has made a plan for how the workload is going to be covered until a replacement is found. Sounds like typical management.

I've got no idea. From what I've been told the consultant is not listed in the directory and so therefore no one knows who their secretary is.

The consultant is on twitter because they edit a medical journal - I'm getting very close to tweeting them to ask for their secretary's details!