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

She falsified medical records!

The two things aren't mutually exclusive though are they?

She chose to put herself in that position by choosing to book a shift as overtime knowing that she hadn’t booked childcare to actually cover her working day.

How about simply not taking on the extra hours, which she was under no pressure to do and she didn't have childcare to cover?

Then there would be no need for desperation and risk taking.

It is their job to fulfil the terms of their contract however

Oh yeah, sure it was.

More likely the one-off that was caught by her employer, who then would have to go through every single appointment she'd ever recorded to make sure that the patients had actually been seen and weren't still ill, being inappropriately treated or worse, had subsequently died.

I'm trying to think of a job I've done where 'Oh yeah, I was definitely working, here are the [falsified] records to prove it' wouldn't have got me fired for gross professional misconduct. I can't.

Anything from a cleaner being paid to vacuum and mop a floor but setting a Roomba and leaving, saying I was taking calls from claimants I'd spoken to and processed their claim earlier whilst my phone was actually on DND, reckoning I was definitely supervising those teenagers until 5pm when I wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention and told them to just make sure they left at 5pm before the caretaker came round to lock up at 5.10pm, pretending I was busy working when I'd actually run the reports earlier in the day and made up some of the data on attendance, assuming that because they had been seen earlier, they probably hadn't gone over the fence or hidden with their mates or a girlfriend and I could therefore claim that they were definitely in afternoon registration, that those high risk prisoners/patients were definitely alive and well when I saw them (but didn't actually) - falsifying records to hide that I wasn't doing the part of my job I was required to do at that time would have been completely unacceptable in all of them.

As you are a doctor, maybe you can confirm my suspicion that in order to set up these bogus appointments she would have had to use actual patients - and to have entered something in the way of notes on their files to prevent it showing up as "dodgy"?

I ask because I don't know how the system works.

Sad a mother has had to resort to this because her other role as parent could not be accommodated

if she did not ask then no she’s gone about it the wrong way

if there is more than this then fair enough

Shes not the first person to be flexible around hours to juggle and shame all the women on this thread sitting in judgement

where is the children’s father?

She wanted to leave on time. If you read the BMJ judgement, she only did it on one occasion (2 appointments) so that she could leave on time.

What sort of "support" should she have had? Most of us have set working hours, and then have to arrange our personal stuff around it, end of. Those of us who earn less than half what she does have to sort our childcare out without bringing our bosses into it. On 60k she can get a babysitter or whatever.

In some jobs, you don't get to walk off the pitch when the clock strikes the hour. You plan your childcare around that.

What you definitely don't do is lie about the hours you've done and then falsify patient records to support your lies.

She didn't need to do it though, she admitted there was no financial imperative.

So she didn't have to resort to it.

Sorry? Are we, as women, not allowed to have an option then?

Was it?

I'm not aware that this has been divulged so won't be assuming either way, but once again we have the "desperate" thrown in for little obvious reason, rather than accept that women also have conditions of employment and are very reasonably expected to adhere to them

Apparently she entered the details of two patients she had seen as telephone consults earlier in the day, as if she had seen them in person. She initially didn't put any notes down at all for the , that was raised with her and she then entered falsified notes for them. It was then noted that she had seen these patients earlier in the day and that they would not have needed further appointments later.

To the person asking how OP knows this doctor felt bad about it, it's reported in the Daily Mail and the Times (where I first read it) that she expressed remorse and said she would never compromise herself or the NHS again.

Sure, block your calendar because of 'patients' but falcifying patient records? Fuck that.

So she could in theory have put those patients health at risk by saying she'd seen them in person, with no further action needed, when in truth she had only spoken on the phone.

I'm hoping she had chosen fairly safe bets to do that to!

Unforgivable, she shouldn't be allowed back.

No, not everyone has parents to help. When I was a newish consultant in an acute hospital specialty with 3 young children, one of whom had a long term health condition, not only was my nearest relative over 150 miles away but that was my Mum who was dying and needed my support too. It was tough. But do you know how many times I committed fraud or did anything else that might have got me a visit to the GMC during those difficult years? Zero. And nor did any of the other doctors I know who faced similar challenges.
It is hard juggling family and work commitments if you don't have extended family support. I have sympathy for parents in that position but it's not that special or uncommon. Lots of doctors are in similar positions and find solutions that don't involve behaving unprofessionally. And medicine is hardly unique either. Many people in other roles face manage to overcome the same kind of problems without resorting to this kind of behaviour.
I think the punishment was reasonable. She has not been removed from the register permanently so has the chance to redeem herself. But it's more than a minor error of judgement. She knew what she was doing was wrong and she subsequently lied about it - that is not acting with honesty and integrity as required by the GMC. I think permanent removal would have been excessive but it is definitely more than a slap on the wrist type offence.

as soon as someone falsifies records, its a regulatory issue. Any practice that does not deal with it as such is putting themsleves in the shit. I am amazed you don't know this.

I have empathy for her too. There are a lot of things she could have done to handle this better but so often there is an expectation on working parents (mothers particularly) to handle things silently and without needing help or allowances, and the pressure can lead people into bad decisions. She shouldn't have done what she did but there is a systemic issue too which puts people in very difficult positions.

I felt its positioning as HEADLINE NEWS in the DM was unjustified and disproportionate. I do feel sorry for her to an extent, but also think suspension from her job was probably inevitable after she falsified records and the trust was gone. I think she self referred to the GMC.

It says that she used 2 patients that she had spoken to on phone appointments to book in fake face to face appointments with, then when a partner questioned discrepencies she added fake appointment notes to their files

If I was one of those patients whose medical records had been falsified I would be livid. She has damaged the credibility of her entire profession and her practice. And the credibility of working mothers. Horrible.

Ah, that make it worse.

I think she was stupid