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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

436 replies

Womanager · 05/07/2019 06:37

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?

OP posts:
BrilliantYou · 05/07/2019 08:43

If it's appointments with consultants/MRI etc then you aren't really given a choice plus there's usually a long waiting time so if you receive appointment and it's not suitable you'll have to wait longer if you need to change it etc plus clinics will only be on a particular day/time.

Maybe speak to the person involved and explain from your point of view and if they can request particular days/times etc but it seems your policy is the issue. Why have a policy that doesn't work for your business? Think you need to seek advice on how to move forward.

BrilliantYou · 05/07/2019 08:45

I had MRI last month and was able to male an evening appointment

abitfedup · 05/07/2019 08:49

Sorry about this @Womanager but I am not sure if there's much you can do, as she will have the law on her side. Especially if she has disabilities and illnesses.

Could you ask her to maybe come in, in the afternoon, when she has appointments in the morning? DH has had a few visits to hospital (maybe 10 or 12,) this past 3 years, and he works odd shifts.

So what we do if it clashes with a shift of his, is ring up and re-arrange the appointment. Most times they can oblige, so maybe the employee can arrange them for when she is at work.

But it does depend what it's for of course, as some departments only offer appointments in the mornings (or only the afternoons.)

Have you asked her?

HypatiaCade · 05/07/2019 08:51

@BrilliantYou - well good for you, and your one and only appointment. with a chronic illness which necessitates a lot of treatment you just don't get that sort of flexibility, not without waiting a very long time for your next appointment as previous posters have said.

JacquesHammer · 05/07/2019 08:56

You can't just pick and choose your hospital appointments on the NHS. It doesn't work like that

Cross posting with the OP, but this isn’t always the case. For all reasons I’ve needed access to hospital appointments I’ve always used either the “choose and book” system, or been given flexible options to pick from.

OP - YANBU (and I note the reverse). Your work are being massively so. Have you taken Union advice?

SimplySteveRedux · 05/07/2019 08:57

With regards to rearranging, if it's a chain of appointments then rearranging one will have a knock on effect on the others, not fun.

SnuggyBuggy · 05/07/2019 09:01

Speaking as someone who has dealt with allocating hospital appointments, we try to help patients arrange and rearrange appointments that work for them but some clinics are rammed full of patients and sometimes we have little to offer. We can't give what we don't have.

CitadelsofScience · 05/07/2019 09:03

Glad I actually read the thread and saw your update Op or else I'd be on a major rant right now.

This is the reason, we'll one of them, that I don't work anymore. I have various autoimmune diseases and their added little extras you get with them and I can go through spates of being under several consultants and need scans and scopes on top. Then add in OH appts etc and it's a nightmare, I just couldn't cope with an employer being like yours.

On a side note I've had a real laugh at all these people on here thinking that you can pick and choose appointment times 😂

BrilliantYou · 05/07/2019 09:04

@HypatiaCade - I do have a chronic illness.

I attend appointments with my various consultants (I am under 3 different ones) for when the appointments are issued. They tend to be during the morning and never on time which is fine however when I have the option to make appointments, like with the MRI, when I have childcare available or so my husband can come along too, then I do.

cstaff · 05/07/2019 09:04

I am not sure how it works in the UK - I am in Ireland but when I am leaving an appointment and the doc says that he wants to see me in 6 months, when I hand this in to his secretary I always ask for his first appointment which is usually 8.30am and make it into work for 10am / 10.30am. Otherwise you are talking delays, queues etc.

Owlchemist · 05/07/2019 09:06

How would you cope with an employee who needed weekly therapy session that only runs at certain times due to therapist availability? Tell them they can't have the treatment they need?

SnuggyBuggy · 05/07/2019 09:18

Cstaff, loads of people ask for the first appointment, we can't give it to everyone

MissEliza · 05/07/2019 09:22

Op have you never experienced the NHS? Perhaps if it's so important to you that your employee can pick and choose her appointments you can do like my dh's employer and give her private health insurance. Even then you are constrained by the schedule of consultants.

familycourtq · 05/07/2019 09:23

I have had two MRI scans recently. Zero choice of time/date offered, just a letter in the post with the appointment. It must depend on where you live? I am in England but not London :)

Sirzy · 05/07/2019 09:24

And the people who have longer recalls on appointments tend to get the early ones so those who go monthly or three monthly are left with what’s remaining!

Gwenhwyfar · 05/07/2019 09:24

"I am not sure how it works in the UK - I am in Ireland"

You seem to be talking about the doctor's surgery, rather than hospital. Hospital appointments are just sent to you in the post without any input from the patient. There is an option to call to reschedule, but it's difficult.

With doctors' surgeries, in some parts of the UK it's almost impossible to get ANY appointment at all so you definitely can't be fussy. Of course, most people who work would like the first or last appointment of the day so they can go on their way to or from work, but it's obviously not possible for everyone so you have to go in the middle of the day and lose half a day travelling there and back. We're also not allowed to use a doctor close to work rather than close to home, something that used to be unofficially tolerated.

Gwenhwyfar · 05/07/2019 09:25

"Cross posting with the OP, but this isn’t always the case. For all reasons I’ve needed access to hospital appointments I’ve always used either the “choose and book” system, or been given flexible options to pick from."

I just get a letter in the post with the appointment details and I think that's quite typical.

herculepoirot2 · 05/07/2019 09:27

Of course she can’t rearrange MRI scans to fit her employer’s schedule.

herculepoirot2 · 05/07/2019 09:29

Urgh. Reverse.

But speak to your union.

Pinkmalinky · 05/07/2019 09:29

I have a friend with long term health conditions. She waits weeks, if not months for consultant appointments to come through. There’s no way she’d cancel one for work...

How often is your employee off work? Are we talking on a weekly basis? Monthly basis? Or is it only a few times a year and you’re trying to find an excuse to get rid of her?

that25cUKHeatwaveof2019 · 05/07/2019 09:30

It is not normal to make up time for a hospital appointment. I have never heard of such a thing in all the companies I have worked for.

then you have not experience everything, have you?

It's completely normal for some people, and being flexible to make-up the time when there's work that needs to be done means the employer is much more flexible about time off request and everybody is happy.
Worked a treat in most places I worked.

The clock watchers who would not consider to make up any time on the other hand get surprised that they are not met with a flexible attitude, funny that. Part-timers who ask for (even unpaid) time off during their working hours need to be careful.

tomatostottie · 05/07/2019 09:31

Good that you updated but many people haven't seen it and that the thread is a reverse.

I think your headteacher is in the wrong here. There is no reason at all why the timetable can't be rejigged to take account of these IV appointments.
You are teaching Maths and Literacy? Is this an arrangement where children are grouped into sets so there might be 3 sets made up out of 2 normal classes and therefore you are an extra person?
Or you teach Maths and Literacy in the mornings and another teacher teaches other subjects in the afternoon to the class?
There must be some way round it - if your appointments are regular - eg. every Tuesday morning or every two weeks etc, there is no reason at all why the headteacher can't engage their brain and do some kind of swapping around to accommodate this.

I think you should speak to occupational health at the LEA again.
Some of these headteachers are really horrible with their staff and it just isn't on.

Baguetteaboutit · 05/07/2019 09:33

Urgh. Reverse.

Fiontar649 · 05/07/2019 09:38

You seem to be talking about the doctor's surgery, rather than hospital. Hospital appointments are just sent to you in the post without any input from the patient. There is an option to call to reschedule, but it's difficult

No, I think cstaff means hospital clinics. I have done the same in Ireland, consultant says "I'll see you in 6 months" then on the way out you tell receptionist that you need an apt in about 6 months time, and ask "any chance of getting the first slot of the day?" - sometimes you get it, others you don't.

OP - I suggest you keep going as you are, and try not to give it too much headspace. I have MS too - you have enough on your plate if you are in the middle of relapsing and changing meds. Could you take a few days sick leave around your first infusion(if you haven't had it yet)? You'll need a chance to recover.

MissCharleyP · 05/07/2019 09:38

I have used “choose and book”, still only offered the days/times that a clinic operates.

I had to have physio a few years ago, fortunately there was an afternoon clinic at my GP surgery but due to my commute I would sometimes have to leave work 2 hours early. My boss was OK about it (didn’t like it but had no choice - a longer story). One day I got a rather stroppy letter from the hospital warning that if I requested another changed appt I’d go back to the bottom of the waiting list. Baffled, as I hadn’t requested the change I phoned up to be told “Oh, it’s us that’s moved the clinic day that week, but this counts as one of you’re requested changes”! I moved house shortly after and saw a private chiropractor.