Pay with Dict8

[juju1507]

I have been working s/e with Dict8 for 3 years now and my payment by cheques are arriving later and later. My last cheque arrived 8 days after it was issued and I noticed they are now sending cheques second class. Does anyone else work for Dict8 on here and, if so, are you finding that your cheque is arriving much later than it used to? I have direct debits set up deliberately for the middle of the month in order that my cheque would have cleared in time but now I am worrying that even by 15th of each month the cheque will not have cleared. Sorry for the ramble but just curious if others have noticed this.

Well I don't know why James thought things would start to improve for Dict8, if anything it has got worse over the last week. Four letters yesterday and two so far this morning. Soul destroying when you are trying to bring in money to the household.

Hi to everyone. I have been following this thread for a long time. I have been working for DICT8 for a very long time. I too had noticed the huge drop in work available since January of this year and it is now compounded by COVID-19. I have typed no more than ten letters since last week. It is hard to work out where to go from here being self-employed. I worked within the NHS for 16 years and with dict8 for about 4 of those at the same time; I think, then left NHS to work in the private sector for 6 years for three consultants alongside dict8; then, finally, solely for Dict8. It is soul destroying and I have now stopped refreshing the page so much since the conversation I saw before - I never had a phone call though. I find this forum very informative and it is good to know you are not on your own in this situation. Still, have to work out how to pay my phone bill now !!

Nothing to type in my 3 specialties so far today. Anyone else having any luck?

@danblack87 it is a tough time for us all isn't it. Maybe May will be better (fingers crossed) as hospitals start firing up the telephone clinics but I'm not holding my breath. I don't things will ever be quite the same again. (sorry for sounding like a doom monger)

Well, I haven't seen a job yet today and I have been on the computer since 7 am, c'est la vie; but, then again, I may have missed it/them whilst face-booking!! I daren't refresh too much since the messages I read and when they do come through (the few) It's like Road Runner on ultra speed. It seems to me that the telephone clinics have been going a 2-3 weeks now but there is definite indication of 'standard format' which are obviously being typed in-house and we cannot type those for sure. You are not a doom monger it is how we are all feeling. I am trying to laugh in the face of adversity but it is not funny when you have a phone bill to pay. I am going to have to seek help from my father :(

I wonder when DICT8 are going to ask for their equipment back - do you think he set a time limit ?

What equipment? I have had no equipment from Dict8.

I started to think about getting another job before Christmas as things seemed to be getting worse by the month with DICT8, hardly any tasks, poor dictation and hourly rate dropping drastically due to the aforementioned.

I was searching around for work within GP surgeries in January but now with COVID-19 that is not going to happen!

I really don't want to go back to working within the NHS as I love working from home [and apparently the cases of COVID are higher in back office clerical staff than frontline staff so that is a no-no for me]. . I live on my own. There are upsides and downsides but in the face of the pandemic, once relaxed, I may have to consider my options.

I thought there was a fault with my pc yesterday as no tasks coming through, but sadly it's just that there weren't any, nor today 😭😢

There are a lot of med secs being set up from home and doing their own typing so some outsourcing has been brought "in-house" for now, hence it is scarce for us.

Sadly, many services in the health service are on-hold. It will take a lot of unravelling in the coming weeks and when that happens, hopefully there will be more letters outsourced.

@danblack87 - did you not receive the email letting us know that they had provided the NHS with their web-based digital dictation workflow management system free of charge

Im gonna be positive again... Yesterday and today have been ever so slightly better than last week. Still not even close to normality but I have had about six tasks today and about five yesterday. Not great but an improvement. :)

@meha5: I received the E-mail - did I miss something? My interpretation was that the NHS audio typists and med secs had access to DDWM system free of charge. I don't work within the NHS so how would that help me here at home? I think I maybe being a bit ditzy here, please enlighten me .

By the by, I had no tasks yesterday and none yet today. So I am hoping something will come through shortly/later (trying to stay positive).

Nothing for me either so far, seen a couple but not quick enough to grab them.....

@meha5: Now I have my head screwed on I see what you were saying about the equipment; I thought you meant you had the equipment. The sooner the NHS med secs, etc.. cannot work from home with the equipment (and I assume they can only type for their own speciality) the better in my eyes. Of course, there is also the possibility of NHS staff also working from home in their out-of-hours of contracted NHS hours, i.e. overtime (which is more of a worry I think) - Perhaps, more will realise the benefits of working from home after COVID-19 and that will decrease the work available for all of us working self-employed should they be taken on by Dict8. What do you think?

There is no work whatsoever today.....

@danblack87 while the NHS secretaries can type at home I don't suppose they can print off and check the few bits they get from DICT8 that need checking, also there are all the other PA/secretary duties, opening post, sorting appointments, answering the phone, sending letters out and checking results, which presumably need to be done from a central office, however I am sure that this could be worked on a rota with fewer staff in the office at any one time etc, so while typing may - hopefully - get better, I do not think there will be masses any time in the near future.

I agree with you totally Gally. I think there must be some rota system in place, otherwise it would just not work + the workload in-house will have dropped too giving more time to the presumably calls being received and the amount of checking of notes will be lower and also the filing and booking out of notes.

I have typed two short letters today. It's my grand-daughter's birthday today and I can't see her so the whole day is positively depressing. Let's see what the afternoon brings.

Not all secretaries within a dept would need to work from home though - just enough to ensure socially distancing.

In the dept I help out in, half of the secs are in, taking care of the admin, taking calls and Emailing queries. Referrals are via Email anyway and, the other half were able to set up from home so are typing, without distraction, so outsourcing is unnecessary.

Who knows how long this will be the case for.

Who knows how long …. in adfinitum. I have not had another job yet since last post

Grim...just that really not really helpful but feels like Groundhog Day. Sat here at my computer fed up trying to think of doing different things for dinner (fed up with that as well) for my family, pressing refresh but not enough to be sent to Coventry, I hope!

Not to cause upset, but hopefully to encourage ! today has been my best day since this pandemic started !!! Video Clinics seem to be underway etc so fingers crossed people