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 am amazed she only got suspended. In health, there is (or should be) zero tolerance for falsification of clinical records.

Not only did she take money for hours she wasn't working, but when she was asked about it by a GP partner, she doubled down and denied having done it. It was only when she was taken to tribunal that she admitted her wrongdoing, presumably because the evidence was clear.

Aside from any harm that could have been potentially caused to patients, and defrauding the practice, health professionals have to adhere to a code of conduct which holds them to a high standard, so that their behaviour does not bring their profession into disrepute. Lying and fraud is disreputable behaviour.

I'm another one who thinks she's got off lightly.

I have no sympathy. We are all responsible for ensuring we have childcare but denying patients appointments so you can leave on time is wrong. Next time you need an appointment desperately think how you’d feel if there really was 2 appointments left but doc had made them up to get off on time.

But she was using wrap around care!

But what if there was noone else around to do the shift at all? It would mean dozens of patients would have gone unseen

Please read the actual tribunal report and not use the DM and Facebook as your primary sources. https://www.mpts-uk.org/hearings-and-decisions/tribunal-hearings-and-decisions/dr-helen-eisenhauer---dec-25 And then ask yourself would you be happy to be treated by a liar who falsifies medical records.

You have no idea what time she actually left? All we know is that she said she was seeing patients when she wasn’t.

All frontline workers know without a shadow of doubt that they cannot just walk off the job at 5. If you need to be elsewhere at a specified time you would assume that isn’t possible or not work the shift. And what she did was so premeditated and intentional it cannot have been a misjudgment at the last moment when she realised she needed to leave.

The police don’t stop chasing robbers at 5, the fire brigade don’t stop putting out fires and HCP don’t stop treatment if they are with a patient.

This entire situation is at the forefront of every frontline workers mind. And if every HCP closed their door 20-30 minutes before the end of clinical time then patients are being pushed into another service. This delays treatment and overwhelms out of hours and emergency services.

In the grand scheme of bad actions at work, what she did wasnt that bad .

She didnt hurt anyone. She didnt steal money.

I think that the response was correct. Maybe she should have got a warning aswell

I think a lot of us felt a twinge of sympathy as we know that it often falls on the woman to do school pick up/childcare

Have you read it? She only booked them so she could leave at 5.45 (her finishing time) and pick up her children at 6!

You haven’t read the article have you?

You know that’s the case in a large number of professions? Many medical type professionals pay stops and then then need to write to notes and do other admin like referrals etc. Or even yes if you run late you don’t carry on getting paid longer because Mrs Smith took 15 mins extra crying about something or couldn’t get her coat on for ages. There has to be a cut off. If the last appointment is 4.45, but the patient comes 5 mins late, they then go to the loo, cry about something, take ages to leave the room etc, should the medical person be paid until 5 or when the patient leaves? In your idea, the last appointment would be 4.30 allowing for all this overrun time. While that’s lovely in theory for the practitioner, if you add up how much time for an extra appointment is now not being used for every single doctor on every single day it all adds up. Or should every single medical professional just get paid an extra half hour/hour a day for the potential of admin whether they need it or not?

Yes she would have had to make an entry on the electronic patient record belonging to those patients.

Ok…it’s been a while since I worked in GP contracting but…..There are a specific number of 10 min slots for patients to be seen in the day by a GP. Those are generally filled either by advanced booked appts or emergency ones booked on the day. A practice opens for patients at 8.30 am and then appts end at 6.30pm. There may be extended hours appts outside of that. GPS are contracted to see patients - it’s the reason we have the profession. There is pressure from management to fill all the slots but that’s because the government are putting pressure on NHSE and us on the practices. There’s nothing we can do about it because demand outstrips capacity. If that’s a problem that you’re worried about then maybe “you” should have thought about that before keeping voting jn Tories. Anyway, there’s a massive demand for appts and so every slot that a practice has available has to be filled and GPS cannot just take time out at random to do the school run. She chose to be a GP, she chose to have children. It’s her responsibility to manage that.

I wonder why she didnt just change her childcare.

Get a childminder.

Her hours didnt work with her current childcare

@stclementine If that’s a problem that you’re worried about then maybe “you” should have thought about that before keeping voting jn Tories.

I have never voted for the Conservative party.

Not me. I feel sympathy for men and women who struggle with childcare. I dont feel sympathy for frauds.

I realise it's not what this lady did, but there's supposed to be zero tolerance for unjustifiably snooping into records too - in fact it's constantly said "they lose their job if they do that!" - but you'll search in vain for any significant number of staff it's happened to

The usual rationale is that we have too few trained HCPs to let any go, but it does sometimes make you wonder what else is brushed under the carpet because of staff shortages

I find it possible to empathise with someone who has done wrong without condoning or dismissing the wrongdoing.

I’m amazed she got off so lightly, and the fact that she did conveys nothing good about the GP profession’s regulation. A solicitor will be struck off for any dishonesty offence, e.g. traveling without a train ticket. This was a sustained period of dishonesty and falsifying records to substantiate it. I suspect she’s only sorry because she got caught.

As a GP, even a salaried one, she had childcare and PT options that are not available to most of us, and yet we are expected to believe her “poor me” tale and that her hands were tied? What an absolute load of hogwash and an insult to everyone’s intelligence.

But it wasn’t for personal time - she just wanted to leave on time and she had arranged childcare for her kids.

I’m not saying I disagree with you on whether dishonesty can ever be tolerated but I think there’s such a workplace culture of having to stay late and the uncertainty of when you can leave that clearly made someone like her panic.

I wonder was it really only one day and two appointments for two patients who she had spoken to that day anyway?

She was part-time anyway and had taken on the additonal day voluntarily by the wording.

I expect there is more to it.

If there isn't more to it, then I feel for her tbh.
We've all made ourselves look busier than we are at times during work hours.

I'm pretty sure you wouldn't say the same if it was another public service worker like the police.

Nurse here. She falsified medical
records to make it appear as though she had actually consulted a patient when in fact she hadn’t.

This is fraud and negligence as the information inputted from these so called appointments is not factual. I know of nurses who have been struck off by the NMC for this so in my opinion she got off lightly.