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

By negotiating with the employer to say, 'this extra locum shift I'm opting to do as additional hours, it can only be until 4.30 or 4pm, not 5pm, because its non-negotiable that I have to pick up my kids at 6pm and I don't have anybody else to do it'. She opted for the additional locum work, and was paid for it, knowing that the last appointment could potentially go over time. Its fraud and falsifying medical records, and she didn't have to do it. She could have chosen to not do those extra locum hours if she couldn't fully commit to all the hours that were required.

This

I'm a bit shocked and disgusted at the amount of comments stating that she was justified because she has children. Seriously?
Falsified records and lies to take a lucrative shift whilst earning the sort of money most of us could only dream of?
She should have paid for proper child care like everyone else.

As a GP myself, I think it’s crazy that this wasn’t handled at a practice level and instead became a regulatory issue.

It’s clear from the story that she was supposed to finish at 4:45 - what she was afraid of was the very common scenario whereby admin staff book in extra patients at the end of the day, even though there aren’t available slots to accommodate them. This is expected of us all the time, and usually we just do it, but I can totally understand her taking steps to avoid it if she had a particular childcare commitment that day.

In my practice, I’d just block off these slots as ‘Not Available’ and nobody would have any issue with that - because I’m treated as a professional, I go the extra mile fifty times a day and so when I need to be cut a bit of slack there’s give and take. If she was a locum in a practice that didn’t know her well, she may not have felt she could do this.

Adjusting the records is wrong, but as I understand it she had had consultations with those patients on the day - she just reclassified them as face to face appointments rather than phone.

Anyway, I don’t see how anyone benefits from her being suspended from practicing. When I see this level of micromanaging and nitpicking, I’m very glad I don’t work for the NHS.

Two words - honesty and integrity.

Lying through your teeth to get out of work early wouldn’t sit well with any employer. She has deprived patients of access to medical care through her actions and demonstrated that she cannot be trusted.

the fact she is tired and struggling with her work life balance just means that she is in a very popular club and like the rest of us has / will have to make some decisions around that balance then just suck it up. It is not up to her employer, NHS or otherwise, to sort her childcare for her on works time.

That’s the only bit I don’t understand.

It’s the dishonesty which finished her rather than anything else but I agree, working and being a parent is tough for everyone and doctors aren’t superhuman, she clearly wasn’t being supported by her team to leave on time regularly enough for it to be an issue.

She needed to collect her children end of her children come first and her colleagues would over book her so she did what she had to do to be there for her own children

As a doctor you don't see an issue with falsifying patient records? I'm glad you don't work for the nhs too

She then added notes to their records stating she had physically examined them, she didn’t even bother matching the fake examination to the correct phone patient and only added the notes when her odd appointments were noticed by another member of staff. How is suffering consequences for falsifying medical records nitpicking?

She has defrauded her employer. If she was concerned she should have acted professionally or not taken the shift.

A don’t agree that there paper should have publisher her name and a photo that is incredibly irresponsible.

I don't think that there is such a thing as a news outlet that hasn't misquoted! After all, the BBC leads the way in this, followed closely by The Guardian.

The Daily Mail seems to take a battering on here.

Sometimes, like the BBC, it deserves it but other times it just seems that posters parrot things like, "Don't believe it because it's in the Daily Mail" or " I don't want to click on that link, it's the Daily Mail" just because they feel it's the right thing to say.

All news outlets fall somewhere on the political line-The Guardian is left wing and the Daily Mail is right wing-neither are instruments of the devil and it is very worrying that many people seem to think right wing views are reprehensible. They're not. They are simply another point of view, a mainstream point of view.

Some people hate left wing views, other hate right wing wing views but they are both valid. If you really hate The Guardian or the Daily Mail to such an extent that you think one or the other should never be believed or even looked at, then that is a dangerous path. We are all entitled to favour a news outlet that reflects our view but that doesn't make other views evil.

As far as The Daily Mail goes though, I do think that in many cases people just treat it as evil because they think that makes them look savvy or cool or knowing.

It doesn't.

Long live the free press and all the points of views that it holds. There is no one correct, official state, point of view and nor should there ever be.

Do you also not bother to book childcare on your working days?

This is absolute nonsense. She took those shifts entirely of her own volition.

I have no sympathy at all for her. That GP works at the medical practice where I go. She's on £60k a year, so surely should be able to pay a childminder/nursery.

It's difficult to get an appointment these days, as we all know.

I think she got off lightly. She should have been sacked and de-registered. Considering how hard it is to get a doctor's appointment, and how much GPs are paid, her behaviour was absolutely despicable and entitled.
She could afford childcare/pickup.. whatever.
She defrauded the NHS financially, and her patients professionally.

I think a warning not to do it again then suspension if she was caught again would have been fair.

Dont falsify records.

yup, for faking a clinical record absolutely. I speak as retired clinician.

I'm a doctor. We have to be completely beyond reproach and are held to very high standards professionally and personally. The GMC has pages and pages of requirements and standards which we are expected to uphold. Accessing patients' records without a reason to do so is seen as unacceptable behaviour, it's against GDPR and risks breaching the medical confidentiality of that patient. And that's not even taking into account that she then falsified the records! The fact that she then didn't immediately admit to wrongdoing also goes against her as doctors are expected to be open, reflective, have a duty of candour and learn from their mistakes. Like others I'm also surprised she only got a short suspension.

It is the falsifying of medical records which is the really serious bit, obviously blocking off appointments is not ideal but tampering with medical records is a big no no. This could have serious implications so no I don't feel sorry for her.

I've got zero sympathy for her.
She lied, falsified medical records and defrauded the NHS. The worst thing she did is put patients at risk by blocking appointments that could have been used

nope. Fraud is a dismissal offence and faking clinical records is a striking off offence.

What they falsify records? Or they choose to finish early and not work a full shift? Either way it should be discussed and agreed. Yes partners get more say and are not the same as salaried GP or a locum but it absolutely should be agreed and out in the open. Falsify records - or appointments just a big NO. Partner or not.

"not ideal" that's an amazing understatement