DICT8 Plus Transcription Group 2023

[Whitestar55]

Here's the new thread. Hope everyone finds it x

@Carosel2 @danblack87 @Gally123 @TypoQueen1 @Lunnuni @deflatedbirthday @nomadchild @Frazzledbynature @Chrissols @cathyk2002 @Pinksville

Sorry if I've missed anyone.

Mine was paid on the first working day, 2/10. No problem at all.

Got paid the day I put it on. Yay for BACS, now they've updated to this century they've lost GSTT & KCH contracts! Bad news for us. Time to move on after all these years I think. Has anyone actually asked them about workload as I'm not getting anywhere?

I asked about the workload last week and got a reply from Liz saying that it was because of the strikes, it always takes ages for the work to resume and that she fully expected the workload to be back to normal ASAP. That was last week, and no improvement as far as I can see. I'm considering going back to Accuro, but not sure.

@VillageGirl1982 i got the same response last week. I think she cuts & pastes the same reply. That was before we knew about GSTT going to voice recognition on 5/10 though. It's going to affect our workload for deffo. I just wish she would tell the darn truth. Updating my CV as we speak sadly.

She must do. I've just emailed Chloe at Accuro (it's been a while), as she's always emailing. But I was reluctant due to low pay and slightly less flexibility. But a smaller wage is better than no wage. Good luck with your endeavours.

@VillageGirl1982 I'm getting a lot of emails from Accuro too. Have never worked for them due to low rate of pay. Do you have an idea of the average hourly wage you can make from them? Thanks.

I think they start you on 45p per minute of dictation, and it works out as a lot less than Dict8 (about £7.50/hr if 15 minutes' dictation takes about an hour). But then you can ask for it to go up, and mine went up to 50p per minute, I think. Better than no work at all, and they treat their transcribers nicely. I've just done a full day's work for them for the first time in about two years, and I do like the variety of specialities they send me. But looking up terminology slows me down, as I'm a bit rusty.

I have had hardly anything from Dict8 for ages. Maybe a handful of letters a week of poor quality. It is not even worth invoicing every month.

I notice there have been no paeds letters for a good while, which I used to get a lot of from Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. They must have lost that contract altogether.

T-pro usually has enough for me to do so I do have work. Although tbh some of that is not the easiest. Very poor English and thick accents can mean you just get a mess and have to retype whole sentences. However, if you get a doctor who knows how to dictate properly and put in the punctuation correctly etc it works like a dream and you are pretty much just proofreading.

Yes I know it's hopeless but as I said above they lost Guys & St Thomas on 5/10 due to a new IT system incorporating voice recognition (I googled it) and they haven't had the decency to tell anyone. Too many transcribers and not enough letters now. People are looking in other places for work.

Just a heads up - I had to do updates on my laptop yesterday and then this morning my foot pedal would not work on either DICT8 or Tpro. It is unusual for it not to work on both (it occasionally has played up in the past with Tpro but has always worked on DICT8 since installation) so can only assume the updates were the cause. However, after some fiddling I did manage to get it to work.

Hope you do not mind me joining this thread. I have been with Dict8 for a long long long time - I've noticed a huge drop in my workload this last few weeks I have emailed again this morning to try and find out any updates.

I have been waiting nearly two weeks now to be paid, so will definitely not be doing any more work for them till I know we are going to be paid....

@Marchy70 as I said many times above they've lost the Guys & St Thomas contract. It's in the news. I can only think it's going to get much worse. I've been with them for years and never known it this bad. Looks like we are all in the same boat but they aren't saying anything to us. Probably incase we all leave & they have nobody left to do their work!

I’ve been told that they expect it to return to normal after school holidays. Also that as with most businesses customers change - I don’t really know what to think. I’m genuinely upset as this is my main income source - never in over 15 years has it been this quiet 😞

@Marchy70 seriously though, what difference does the school holidays make? It's still dead!

@Lollybaz i agree something definitely isn’t quite right! I am going to have to consider looking at going out to work again. - it’s been a long time I haven’t been in an office since I became pregnant with my eldest daughter who is 15

@Marchy70 why not try your local NHS - I approached mine and they are crying out for home workers - I have taken on 22.5 hours as don't want any more but could easily have taken full time, you get a bit of variety too. @Lollybaz I agree, school holidays don't make that much of a difference, clinics still run.

@Chrissols that's a bit of a worry ...! 👀

@Chrissols could you tell me more please 😬 I didn’t know this kind of thing was a option! What department did you approach and is this transcribing? Thanks so much for any help you can provide xx

@Marchy70 I contacted the HR Department and the Bank Service at the same hospital - immediately I was offered work on the bank (you would need to get a DBS if you haven't already got one). The work I have is mainly transcribing but also sending out appointments and inputting referrals - all done from home on an NHS laptop which they provided.

@Chrissols thank you that’s super helpful I shall look into that x

@Marchy70 Good Luck - hope you get some hours with them - you still have all the freedom of working from home but a known salary at the end of it, and of course, if it is on the bank you get paid weekly 😊😊

@Chrissols ive been keeping an eye out in nhs.jobs but haven't seen any looking for home workers. I'm even happy to go out to work but don't want more than 2 days. May I ask how you managed to get home work and what you are doing? Is it just typing like we've been doing? I was even considering working on the bank but my two local hospitals are quite a drive away apart from a small community hospital. Thankyou!

@Lollybaz I just asked if there was anything available, but said I preferred home working although would consider office-based. They are actually quite open to home working now. I am basically transcribing, sending out appointments/cancellation letters, inputting referrals and any notes onto the system. I have regular contact through teams on-line so not at all isolated.

@Chrissols Thankyou, apologies I think my message crossed with your reply above as you had already answered the same question to Matchy70! My fingers are clearly tired from
all the bloody refreshing I've been doing! 🤬😂