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

For falsifying medical records? Yes absolutely.

Absolutely, we have to assume that if she was falsifying appointments, she must have been putting in false notes for the appointments - these may have been inconsequential, but may have influenced other practitioners decisions.

I am an accredited/registered HCP, and I am married to a GP.

I have some sympathy for her situation, balancing work and kids, but she should have been struck off.

Dishonesty/lying to colleagues, falsifying patient information, is a huge red flag as it shows someone that is comfortable with lying while in a respected and trusted position.

It brings the profession into disrepute.

She added notes to the patient records dishonestly which is then on their medical record. Anything you do add to a patient record can have consequences for their care and be relied upon by other clinicians. A patient needs to be able to trust their doctor not to use their private record, accessed without good reason under GDPR, to fabricate so they can go off and do something else.

I'm surprised she's allowed to return to practice after suspension.

Do you imagine that if her children had additional problems which contributed to the decisions she made this would not have been mentioned in mitigation? If your child can't cope with someone else picking them up then, quite simply, you don't take on overtime which might put that at risk. It seems to me that the possible contribution of sleep problems etc has been fully taken into account in that she has only received a relatively short suspension, but they really can't close their eyes to dishonesty which prejudices patient care.

Doctors swear on oath to ‘do no harm’……….by claiming to be having F2F appointments and falsifying medical records she has potentially done just that.

second, while I sympathise about childcare/school runs (as a mother myself I know it’s hard) - I’ve noticed that people increasingly seem entitled to say “childcare needs” and leave work to take care of their kids. There are some jobs you can do this for - a doctor is not that type of job. That is why paid childcare exists

so basically being a doctor and a mother are incomparable hence my comment about this woman/doctors situation being a symptom of the patriarchy. The NHS are desperate for doctors but yet they have shift patterns that a person cannot guarantee they’ll get to finish on time as the GMC lawyer was quoted as saying “it’s predictable that appointments run late’ or similar (sorry I put it in quotes but that’s not the exact quote).

so don’t even train to be a doctor if you think there’s a chance you want to have kids and be able to reliably pick them up from childcare.

as a women I don’t want more male doctors. The NHS need to take note and adapt to be more women friendly working practises if they want to better support women’s health and float the gender healthcare gap.

I haven't read the whole thread, but her actions go beyond simply booking patients for appointments they did not need and which did not take place.

She needed to get away promptly at 4.45pm to pick up her children by 6pm. She was worried that her last appointment at 4.30pm might impact on her finishing time. She booked patient A into that slot, knowing that no face to face appointment was required. She subsequently changed that to patient B, who also did not need a face to face appointment. Then, critically, she made a false entry in patient B's records stating that she had seen and examined the patient. I agree with counsel for the GMC that this showed a reckless disregard for patient B's safety and put patient B at risk.

I do not feel sorry for her at all. I sympathise with her desire to make sure she got away from surgery in time to pick her children up, but putting patient safety at risk in order to cover up what she had done was unacceptable.

The full report is here:

https://www.mpts-uk.org/-/media/mpts-rod-files/dr-helen-eisenhauer--09-dec-25.pdf

‘[…] I had blocked an appointment for a patient to be seen. I then completed an entry into a patient's record 2 days later which was incorrect. At the time, I thought this was the correct patient that I had seen. However, on further investigation it has shown that I did not see this patient and the information entered was incorrect. I could not reasonably explain what happened on that day and the evidence suggests that did not see a patient in the particular timeslot blocked and therefore the information in the notes was not accurate. I do not feel that I knowingly entered false information, but I agree that this was a significant event and with no explanation it questions my probity. I have tried to be honest in my reflections on the day, but I cannot account for what happened and accept the seriousness of the situation. I have accepted the final outcome from the investigation and hearing and wish to move forward in improving my note taking, multitasking and showing my probity and trustworthiness does not need to be questioned again.’

Pretty damning. She didn't just book a fake appt on the ledger and leave, she actually two days later went back and added a fake note saying she'd examined the patient!

She also seems like she's trying to skirt around it and do anything except for admit she did it deliberately. Saying she can't reasonably explain it, and that she 'can't account for what happened'. She's been very lucky not to get struck off.

'I do not feel that I knowingly entered false information' lol

I wouldn't assume they hadn't. They've misquoted me before.

As a nurse, if I'd have done the same thing my professional body the NMC would have struck me off. She got off lightly.

You have missed the fact that this was overtime that she took on. She could simply have refused to do it.

It'll please you to know that more women than men are training to be doctors now.

I’m a doctor. I’d expect never to work in medicine again if I did this.

Completely unethical.

It's the falsification of records that's the problem, the reason she did it is largely irrelevant. There is a wider societal problem with childcare options that allow people to work full time.

They barely mention the most serious issue, which is that she compromised patient safety by adding notes to a patient's record, falsely stating that she had seen and examined the patient.

She doesn’t deserve to have her name and photo out there. It’s all for public entertainment. None of us needed to know.

I understand OP how you feel. However probity/honesty is an integral part of being a doctor. People don't want to see a lying doctor in general. She referred herself to the GMC.

This making up appointments is very common..Its also very stupid as consequences can be harsh. She's now all over the news and on MN.

It's a matter of trust.

Posting as a reminder that these were extra hours she took on by choice and that she herself has said she was under no personal or professional pressure to do them

But why did she take on a locum shift if there was a possibility it could cause issue with picking up her children? Or why didn't she arrange someone else to collect them when signing up for the shift?

OP it's because she is in a position of trust as a doctor and there are basic standards of professionalism expected - honesty, fairness, work ethics, putting patients first etc. She has breached those standards repeatedly - she didn't just put in false appointments (effectively lying as well as wasting NHS time), she then doubled down on that lie by putting in a write up on the fake appointments when called out on it, then made up another lie about what had happened and allegedly being confused about who she'd seen and not seen, before finally saying it was a childcare issue. Given her repeated lies that may even have been untrue and actually she could have just been lazy. This is disgusting behaviour that needs to be treated appropriately. All doctors are aware that GMC hearings are a matter of public record and that they could end up in the news as a result. She chose to do this anyway, thinking she'd get away with it. If she genuinely was under pressure re childcare then she could and should have spoken to the practice manager/senior GPs and explained the problem.

There is not one jot of sense here. Of course collecting your child is ‘doing her own thing’. She should have finished at five. She deliberately made the decision to work an extra hour. Then she did not work it but instead went to get her kids and falsified medical records.

That’s not ‘having a life outside of work’.

If your child got run over by a bus this afternoon and you called an ambulance and it didn’t turn up because the paramedics were supposed to be working but instead they were “having a life outside of work” that would be fine with you I suppose.

Nonsense. You are ignoring the fact that this woman accepted that she was under no pressure to accept the overtime in question, she chose to do so. The job itself would have been perfectly compatible with picking her children up if she hadn't chosen to go for overtime. The situation would have been exactly the same for a father with childcare responsibilities.

It's fraud and she's a criminal .

Mmmm why wasn’t the father doing the pick up? Why was she falsifying medical
records?? That’s an extreme response