To feel very sorry for this doctor

[runningpram]

I feel the way this lady has been treated is appalling.
Obviously this wasn’t the right thing to do but she wasn’t leaving early and there was no patient detriment. Why were her managers not supporting her better?
Why on earth could not this have been sorted out within the practise without a formal disciplinary process? As a working mum I really feel for her. Could someone medical shed light on why this would have been blown up into such an issue?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15422147/amp/GP-faked-medical-appointments-work-not-late-afternoon-school-run-suspended-practising-5-months.html

They block out the end of the shift as being unavailable? Or they fill in the appointment slots with patient names and then access their files and add false information? Because those are 2 very different situations

I have to say...i've worked in a lot of different industries.

Ive seen people minorly falsify records - in all of them.

One time - I saw my signature on a document.

I had never signed it. I asked and she said that I wasnt in that day and it needed signing.

I think it’s odd she was struck off as other doctors seem to get away with worse.

However greed & lying is never a good look.

It was initially handled at practice level. After lying to the partners, she had a meeting at the practice, confessed and then she referred herself to the GMC.

She didn't just adjust them, though. She added notes to their record for a made up consultation, including documenting that she'd examined at least one patient. That's what makes this so serious IMO. I would have been concerned if the practice tried to sweep this under the rug.

Yet women on minimum wage jobs have to sort out school runs, childcare etc.
Unfortunately lying is never good and this could have been the thin end of the wedge. Once it becomes a habit and acceptable to the liar then bigger or additional lies can become acceptable.
I do recognise though that a father is less likely to be in her position.

Well that IS fraud and shouldn't have happened.

Regardless, that doesn't meaning faking patient records is fine. Can't you understand the implications of that?

It’s really common in poor practices for slot blocking to take place for all kinds of reasons (such as ‘signing off scripts’) It’s not allowed where I work unless you genuinely had an emergency (a collapse, a home visit, crisis patient over running) and then that patients name would be put in there as an ‘extension’ of the original appointment and a false consult wouldn’t be recorded!

By the ‘nitpicking’, I’m referring to the fact that she couldn’t just block off the slots, but felt she had to create false appointments in order to justify leaving on time. It’s clear she only added the false notes afterwards once she’d been hauled up on this. The problem is with the creation of a work environment whereby a clinician felt she couldn’t just hold the boundary of her designated working hours, but instead had to create false appointments just to ensure she would finish at the correct time. Of course I’m not justifying making false additions to the records. But I don’t think people realise just how much pressure GPs are under, the completely unrealistic level of service you’re expected to deliver within allotted appointment times, and how many unpaid hours you have to spend on essential
administrative work.

She was very silly to do this, but I can understand and sympathise with the pressures that drove her there.

*Edited to add one additional sentence - sorry, this thread is moving very fast!

I can sympathise with the stress around juggling a professional role with unpredictable hours and caring responsibilities but it's a problem that very large numbers of working parents, people who care for elderly parents and others, face on a daily basis. The vast majority of us do so without commiting fraud. Yes, it can be tough. I'm sure many of us, in many professions have had the experience of something unexpected happening at work which has delayed you when you need to pick up kids etc and it's very stressful. It happens a lot though, in medicine and other professions, so you need robust fall back plans. And in this case it wasn't even an unexpected emergency but a predictable problem that she needed to find a solution to - an honest, legal solution. She didn't do that. She deliberately lied and falsified records. I'm sympathetic towards the problem but can't see any justification for the actions she took.
I think she's been treated fairly. I know of doctors who have been more harshly treated for what I'd say were less serious infractions.

The article I read said said she actually had a telephone appointment with the patients so didn’t actually put false illnesses in people’s notes.

Use a childminder, nanny, or maybe not take an extra shift she didn't need to if she had no bloody childcare? She's a scumbag who gives working mothers a bad name.

Every working parent has had this dilemma. I used to leave work early (with my managers consent) one day a week and spend £££ on a taxi to collect my DD from nursery. She should have sorted it out with her workplace.

I realise there are mitigating circumstances but I don’t think she has been treated unfairly. If I made up fictitious appointments and falsified records I would probably be sacked and possibly prosecuted. She is lucky to just be suspended.

She stated herself that she wasn’t under any pressure to take additonal work as a locum, professionally or personally.

She initially denied wrongdoing but enquiries showed she had not only blocked her diary in the late afternoon to avoid seeing other patients but also falsified entries in the work diary suggesting she did have the face-to-face consultations

Did you miss this ?

No she said she had physically examined them when she had not- this could lead to someone not being investigated further if another GP thought they had been examined. This means cancers could have been missed.

Maybe I’ve misinterpreted your post but…‘Even though she is ‘only’ a GP? Only?! GP roles, along with teachers and emergency services are never ‘only’ roles…

Well she did as she states herself she put the wrong fake notes against the wrong patients. For the ones she got ‘right’ she falsely claimed that she physically examined the patient. Both of those things could have an impact on future healthcare.

I didnt say it was right.

I said that Ive seen it happen everywhere ive been.

Its hard to know when to report or not, as in some of these places the behaviour was happening at manager level too

Ahh yes. True.

she put fake face to face exams in?

Of course. She accessed and messed with patients' medical records.

She lied plus as much as childcare should be sorted between parents if there are two she has shown that women are unreliable because of childcare issues. It’s the sort of issue that consciously and subconsciously keeps women seen as lesser in the workplace by some.

What a load of rubbish. She accepted additional shifts for extra money which would have been increased due to it being locum. Then lied and lied, falsifying medical records. But because she’s a woman with children all that should be overlooked and have our sympathy? Well, she hasn’t got mine. She was greedy and lied - I don’t care of the person’s gender. They put people at risk for their own selfish gains.

I'm starting to think this needs to be pinned at the top of every page!