RemedyUK News Bullying Victimisation and Abuse of Power?
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Remedy Script September 2008 |
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 | Bullying Victimisation and Abuse of Power?The Suspended Dr Scot Jr
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The Script September 9th 2008
Bullying, victimisation and abuse of power?
Every so often we get to hear about events that are so disturbing that they stop us in our tracks, wondering how one member of the so-called caring profession can treat another so badly.
A junior surgeon from Inverness’s Raigmore Hospital committed a minor misdemeanour. He criticised a senior member of the medical establishment in a posting on the doctors-only website DNUK. Allegedly, he used both the F-word and the S-word, language which may prove shocking for some people. It was visible for a few hours at night and was quickly removed. He has apologised profusely for his misjudgement. Unfortunately this was not good enough to satisfy the London Dean Lis Paice who alerted Highland Dean Gillian Needham, who in turn used her powers to have him suspended from work.
Six weeks later he remains suspended from his training job, at the mercy of an unelected body.
A leaked email shows that... “Despite local advice to reinstate, regionally Needham has blocked his return. The local disciplinary committee and LNC recommended no action to be taken against him, but the Deanery has continued the suspension”.
Fuller background to the story has been carried by the major medical bloggers - some of these links contain strong and offesnive language.
It has also been carried in the Inverness Courier and the Aberdeen Press and Journal. and on The Register
We hope that the Deanery has followed due process to the letter because their actions will be scrutinised very carefully. And we will be calling for a thorough overhaul of the system that allows events like this to happen.
It is hard to imagine the mental anguish he must be going through. It's every doctor's nightmare to be suspended. In this case he is being held in limbo without trial – isolated, silenced and humiliated. One of the bloggers has rumoured that officials are poring over his medical student records searching for reasons to justify prolonging his anguish.
Suspension is devastating for doctors and carries a significant morbidity. A dressing down and/or warning would have been a proportionate response to the alleged crime. Suspension is usually reserved for doctors who pose a potential risk to patients, or following a serious adverse incident. Lis Paice, the London Dean, wrote in a British Journal of Hospital Medicine Update that:
"Suspension from clinical duties pending investigation, although a neutral act, may be felt as punitive by the trainee. It is not always necessary. Often it is possible to restrict the range of activities of the trainee to exclude those considered high risk, bearing in mind the nature of the triggering incident."
We too have borne it in mind, and suspect it is unlikely that the trainee would go on to use Anglo-Saxon vocabulary in front of a patient. So we are not clear about the rationale for suspension. Unless it's a personal thing. Or unless it's to set an example, and to make others think again about criticising “the great and the good”.
It might have backfired. Because Deans Needham and Paice have now been referred to the GMC for this act. Dr Rita Pal, the complainant, cites bullying, victimisation and abuse of power in her letter.
The 2009 Recruitment Process
Plans are slowly coming out for next years process. The plan is for it all to start on January 5th, seven months ahead of the jobs starting. And there seems to be some changes to the numbers in the pipeline. The Department of Health is now calling for a reduction in the number of specialty training posts, partly because of the projected consultant numbers, and partly because of the difficulty in delivering adequate training to those in 'training posts'.
This is the first time that they have recognised that large numbers of core training posts/programmes exist primarily to support service delivery rather than to train the specialists needed in the future.
This leaves a series of questions unanswered. Why were so many non-training jobs converted in 2007 into 'training' jobs, and how was educational approval granted? And secondly, who is to deliver the service that was previously done by these doctors? Are we to see the creation of an enhanced Trust/Staff grade, and what will be the entry requirements and prospects for these grades?
Unfinished Business – it ain't going away!
Our online petition calling for an investigation by the GMC of the MMC/MTAS Architects has already accumulated over 1500 signatures. More supporters are welcome. Please follow the link: Unfinished Business. It will take 30 seconds of your time.
Deaneries are Employment Agencies – EASI does it...
The announcement that Deaneries were subject to stringent Employment Agency (EASI) regulations can hardly have been welcomed at their High Command. The Health Service Journal quotes an unnamed civil servant who acknowledges that they are considering options, including legislation, to ensure that deaneries could become exempt from such rules.
She added that "It is just a technicality. We're working with the NHS to come to an arrangement." The woeful lack of job or contract information for junior doctors has become so bog-standard over the years that we have forgotten the unjustness of it. We don't think that the conduct of an unaccountable service that makes up its own rules and is beholden to the employers is just a 'technicality'.
Remedy have met with our lawyers and we are considering our own options in order to protect the interests of junior doctors. Watch this space.
Tell Lord Darzi what you think
We have been consulting on the educational changes proposed by Lord Darzi. The survey will be open until the end of the week. If you haven't yet sent us your views then we would greatly appreciate you taking the time to do so. It can be reached at Darzi Questionnaire
We are especially keen to get some views from Consultants and other non-training grades, so please forward this to any colleagues with an interest in the future of postgraduate training and medical education. This one takes 5 minutes (depending on how quickly you think...)
R-UK Magazine now online
For those of you who didn't manage to get a copy of Issue 2 of R-UK mag, it can now be read online at at at this link. You can gasp at our front cover and marvel at the quality of the content.
Round Two – Now you see it...
Remedy has been contacted a few times recently by shocked and disappointed trainees who have previously been told that there would not be any Round 2 posts in their region and specialty. But on returning from holiday they discovered that there were some, but that the closing date had come and gone whilst they were away. A career disappeared... before you can say “employment agency”.
Unfortunately the Round 2 jobs come and go with great speed, and some of them are only advertised on local Deanery websites. Remedy provides a jobsite which aims to collate jobs from around the country, but there seems to be very little support in the establishment for the idea of a central unified resource to make life easier. Quite the opposite, in fact. So if you are looking for a job then keep your eyes open and don’t blink.
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The Remedy Team.
www.remedyuk.org
