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

I assume the jig is up at her current place of employment. When her suspension ends, is it likely she'll be able to work in general practice (or any form of medicine) again in the UK with a suspension for dishonesty?

So she is suspended and still getting paid!! Full pay?

If I'd done similar in my admin role for the local authority I would have been sacked and not suspended with pay. So the more important your role (GP) the more allowances are made for you if you screw up. And if you're in a low role (admin) you get more severe punishment. No wonder this country is failing

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

Of course she did, @MsRumpole; having been found out she was hardly going to say "Actually I don't give a sh1t but will be more careful not to get caught next time", knowing perfectly well that could have resulted in a striking off rather than just a suspension

Haha. Everyone has to express remorse.

Imagine if she said "to be honest i don't give a shit'

What kind of crazy culture have we fostered in the nhs whereby leaving work on time is not a non-negotiable?

I’m not sure if other industries also see working beyond paid hours as an expected norm? But I know (first hand) that while nhs managers will toe the party line and officially tell you to not work outside of paid hours, they also place increasingly unrealistic pressure on staff by increasing workloads to meet KPI targets.

According to the information in the article, she wanted to leave on time (not early) and felt she had to invent appointments to be able to guarantee this.

It’s not ok to lie & it’s really REALLY not ok to falsify records, but equally it’s not ok to be silently expected to work unpaid. It’s yet another example of the toxic work culture that’s rife in the NHS/UK. You only have to read the perspectives of doctors who have left the Uk to work abroad - who repeatedly discuss the difference in work/life balance.

I’m not defending her actions at all, and I do agree that disciplinary action is appropriate for being dishonest, but I think this raises issues that are indicative of a much bigger systemic issue within the nhs.

She signed up to do extra shifts

MN tends to be extremely rigid and black and white about rules so I’m not surprised to see the lack of sympathy. I am sympathetic, as I know how hard it is to manage an inflexible workplace.

It wasn't an "inflexible workplace ". She'd signed up for extra shifts. Why on earth she didn't have a childminder or a nanny to pick her kids up, only she knows.

This was a cascade of events that started with a locum GP blocking off two appointment slots, and being pulled up on it. The falsification of records only happened afterwards as an attempt to cover it up. With a more reasonable workplace culture and better management, it never had to get that far.

As a retired clinician, she gets zero sympathy or empathy from me. That's not just a bad decision, its deliberate fraud and deliberate falsification of medical records.

She will be able to work. We are very short of GPs.

oh so its ok to do it to cover up a fraud? well that makes it fine then.

She was asked perfectly reasonably questions about the slots and instead of answering them honestly, she lied and then had to substantiate those lies.

It's not workplace culture that's the problem here.

She CHOSE to take on extra shifts. Setting aside the fraud here are some circumstances where its NEVER EVER right to falsify records.

Christ this is getting boring isn't it?

So many people jumping in to enlighten us all without bothering to read that she did infact sign up for extra shifts.

It's been stated over and over again, yet so many are still not reading it.

So she could have spoken to the practise manager and explained she needed to leave at XX time and couldn’t do the last 2 appointments.

Lots of roles you finish the face-2-face part and then have to stay on for extra. (Teaching is a classic one, finish with kids at 3.30 but can’t just down tools and leave). It is part of the job.

She need taking the extra shift that the last appointment was 4.45, she is an experienced dr so would know there was a likely hood of it overrunning in a complex case or need some admin. She didn’t have to take the shift, or could have negotiated an earlier finish.

she is a liar. she has been caught out. whether its the nhs, whether she is a qualified professional or not is all irrelevant. she lied, she got caught, she is going to lose her job and is remorseful only because she got caught.

i have zero sympathy for liars.

the only relevant thing in all of this for me is that it just once again demonstrates how completely broken the NHS is and what it actually needs is a politician with the gumption to get a blank sheet of paper and start again with it.

It's an issue because she lied, she's In a trusted position and is not trust worthy.
There was a patient detriment, for the patient she falsified notes for and for other sick patients unable to get an appointment due to her blocking spaces with ficticious appointments (not that it's relevant but...) while claiming a 60k part time wage.
We are responsible for the organisation that our lives entail. If we choose to have children and it requires us to pause or rework our careers then that's required and hopefully a balanced conversation between the 2 parents. For example working closer to home ect which would presumably eleviate some of the barriers here.
Lots could have been done here? And I do have some empathy but I do also think it is fair for it to be disaplinary action.

It is incredibly common to work a night shift on the wards and as the shift draws to a close someone rings in sick, management promise a replacement taken from another busy ward (or maybe an agency nurse is already booked) and you wait and wait for the replacement unable to go off duty until they turn up. Staff missing getting home in time for the school run. Free parking time ends about 30minutes after the night shift so a parking fine may ensue. To cap it all you won’t even be paid overtime.

It’s not a mistake though, she knowingly committed fraud. That’s something most of us will never do in our lives.

Ultimately she deliberately chose to utilise private medical records from patients to cover up her dishonesty, bringing two people into it whose health could have been compromised as a result. This wasn't something where she was only risking her own neck. You can't have that kind of flagrant selfishness, dishonesty and stupidity in a GP. I dread to think what else she has done over her career that hasn't come to light, if she thought this was appropriate.

GPs are supposed to have unquestionable character. The public place their lives in their hands and have to be able to trust them. It’s as simple as that.

@ShamedBySiri and why is this any different from other jobs in other sectors? why do NHS workers think the rest of us dont have this happen also and in some cases very frequently. i often had to cover for staff who were booked to go to committees after work then went sick and someone had to go. same with the parking etc. Nursery staff where parents run late so fail to pick up and they have to stay on..... It happens in lots and lots of jobs. and being paid overtime lots of us are again in that situation.

It is settled law that women are more likely to be responsible for childcare (or elderly care), so discrimination on the basis of caring responsibilities can in some circumstances amount to sex discrimination. For example, a policy or practice that puts a person with caring responsibilities at a particular detriment can be sex discrimination (unless it can be objectively justified - a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim).

Do you not think there is an argument that the fact that they can’t guarantee that a shift will finish on time, which is a potential barrier to a woman with caring responsibilities being able to take on overtime shifts etc, might amount to indirect sex discrimination?

Then you'd have had the patients/their insurance being charged for a second appointment (in person, so likely to be a higher costs) they never had as well.

I doubt that an insurer would be best pleased about a practice that was the source of fraud - meaning that it would be possible the entire business closed as a result.