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've not read the whole thread but do we know who would have picked up her children if she didn't? If she didn't pick up she would have been reported to social services I assume?

I'm a single parent so had no one to do it except me (the magical support network doesn't exist for SEN families). I didn't work full time because of this.

She claimed to have seen patients in surgery and examined them when, in reality, she only spoke with them over the phone. That absolutely does compromise patient safety as if they were to contact the surgery again because their condition had gotten worse or was not improving one of her colleagues might have felt falsely reassured that they had recently been seen in person and examined, which means they may decline to see them in person or give incorrect advice. The risk may be small but it is there.

Agreed. She could easily have hired a childminder, nanny etc to pick the kids up.

I'm sympathetic to her situation but being dishonest and falsifying medical records is not the way to go about things.

I agree OP. If it’s as said in the news, then I think they’ve been so harsh. People wfh constantly brag about popping out to pick their kids up from school or looking after them in the holidays whilst working, which is generally against the rules of most employers. I was also surprised that it was actually headline news in the DM. But I do wonder if this was the tip of a very large iceberg, and that there was probably more which had gone on which we’re not privy to..

Salvadoridory
You’ve stated she is ‘only a GP’. GP’s are qualified doctors who have undergone GP training, continue with their personal professional education, and have a vast knowledge base as well as responsibilities. To refer to a GP as ‘only a GP’ is rather insulting.

Us women cant win if we work or if we stay at home. And when you work you're expected to parent, house keep and exercise as if you don't have a job

I wonder if this is the only misdemeanour they managed to stick? If there is no other "backstory" then its extremely poor and toxic not to have handled it internally in yhe practice. Either way, the GPs face shouldn't be plastered on the front pages

It doesn't matter what you believe because she did add notes to at least one patient's record and is quoted “I did not consider the consequences of writing this entry at the time. I recollect only my worry and embarrassment,”.

Being in a corporate leadership role in a big corporation is challenging because it's a dog-eat-dog environment not because of some GP who got hung out to dry for gaming the system. Far more men break the rules than women but they tend to keep schtum about one another's misdemeanours yet quite gleefully throw a woman under the bus for much less serious infractions.

If everyone in the corporate world were struck off for doing what this GP did or something equivalent, there would be no no-one left in any position of power.
It's a greasy greasy pole and you have to be a wily wolf to get into or keep any senior corporate role.

The tribunal decision is clear that she admitted making a false entry in a patient's records saying that she had seen that patient and carried out an examination. The tribunal stated that this showed a reckless disregard for patient safety. Unless you know something the tribunal didn't, you are wrong.

Ha! I was going to say the same thing. Corporate soulless desk monkey saying a fully qualified doctor who spends their time helping people is 'only' a GP. Hilarious 🤣

If everyone in the corporate world were struck off for doing what this GP did or something equivalent...

Equivalent to falsifying medical records and endangering a patient's health, potentially their life? (And what does "struck off" mean in a corporate environment? Plenty of people fuck up their careers by committing gross misconduct.)

Do you actually understand the severity of this? I'm not sure you do.

No, I have sympathy. The world is arranged for men, who don't usually have caring responsibilities, so such responsibilities are seen as optional. I remember having a real problem with a HoD who thought taking my DC from childminder to swimming lessons was optional. I gave in, but I should not have been asked to, and should not have given in, either.
Picking up her DC was important and she should not have had to pretend she had done appointments face to face that were phone appointments because picking up your DC is not optional. She was meant to finish at a certain time because she needed to so she should have finished then. Let people without DC to pick up pick up the slack - that will be men.
She should not, of course, have falsified the records. But she should have said I have to go, I have DC to pick up - unless one of you (practice members) can do it for me, which will require me to phone ahead and you to have ID.

PIcking up your DC is not 'personal time'. Caring responsibilities need to be built into the work situation so that women (it's always women) are not put in such situations.
And good on her for working full-time. One of the problems we have is the large number of women doctors who work part-time - mainly because of the problem this case has highlighted.
She should not have falsified the medical record, of course.

I am a GP, and to all the people saying get a childminder or later childcare, I can tell you that is almost impossible. Where I live it all finishes at 6 pm. I know this because I’ve tried. On days where my surgeries finish at 450 pm there is no guarantee that my surgery won’t run late. Im rarely away by 6pm On my on call day i am scheduled to finish at 6pm and that’s if I finish on time. I have a husband so all this is doable but not ideal.
Occasionally something will arise - a person with chest pain or someone being suicidal- where I have to stay back till an ambulance arrives. One colleague waited till 730 for one recently. Again whose childcare is open till 730pm? We need more GPs so let’s look at why this situation occurred and think better about how we support women to work.

But she lied!!😯🙄 bet her colleagues will never trust her again..and rightly so..should be struck off...that kind of responsible job calls for a certain amount of integrity!

agree 💯

The GP entered an incorrect piece of information about one of two patients she had had phone consultations with on the same day. This could have happened regardless of the fact that she put their appointments on her work system at the wrong time. This type of clerical error happens because humans make mistakes.

Doctors and nurses make mistakes all the time and this can lead to people dying in the worst case scenario. I'm not saying what she did was okay, I was replying to Salvadoridory's whinge that women like this GP make her life in the corporate world more difficult, which I personally find laughable.

"Struck off" means the GP can't work as a GP anymore so that would translate into being fired in the corporate world if you have difficulty in making that connection.

I also don't have an issue with this GP being struck off.
However, I do think that many more male doctors should be struck off but are somehow protected in ways that this GP was not. I'm basing that on having family members in the nursing profession who see what doctors do and don't do on a day-to-day basis.

Um no. It's fraud. When you're working, you're working. Not doing the school run.

Very many GP's already do work part-time, I can't see why she couldn't find herself a part-time job. What does she do in the school holidays?

Initially I felt some sympathy for her, but not now I know that this was a locum shift and thus she chose to take it on.

It's reflective of a wider issue that healthcare professionals are often expected to work unpaid overtime. If you read the article, her normal finish time is supposed to be 4:45. It sounds like people had been booking in appointments after this, presumably making her late at times. It's also reflective of the difficulties of navigating childcare whilst being a working mum.

She has obviously acted poorly and should not have falsified medical records, but it's not hard to have some empathy. There are people who have done a lot worse and yet seem to get away with it in the medical world. She should have gone via HR or her union.

No patient detriment? Other, genuine, patients could have been seen, and weren’t.

No patient detriment? Other than taking appointments from real people you mean. Do you know how hard it is to get appointment at the best of times

Someone posted a link to the full tribunal details and she had volunteered to work later on a locum basis (whether pressured to or not I am not sure) so she had chosen to to work it and was being paid extra to do so and then left early
I did feel bad for her up til then