You better believe it. If you have 2-300 consultants and half of them do
some sort of private work (particularly in London teaching hospitals) then
you can easily see how correspondence alone is going to cost a lot for the
Trust, and ours has recently clamped down on such abuse of the postal
system. (In saying that, certain forms of private work actually generate
revenue for the Trust.)
On the other hand I still think most consultants are far more likely to lose
money on sundry expenses - like unclaimed telephone calls, taxis, tubes and
parking for Trust business - than they are to make money at the Trust's
expense.
Personally, I detest bureaucracy so I often misuse the Trust postal system
but I don't claim on my telephone rental, tubes, taxis etc. I've had a few
run-ins with Trust management over this and they seem to have turned a blind
eye now when I calculated that it would cost them a lot more if we
formalised the whole process and I claimed for everything, not to mention
the tiers of extra admin staff you would need to service 300 consultants'
sundry expenses.
Similarly with my room usage. I use my NHS office on private business one
day a week but the Trust don't mind this. As far as they're concerned it
doesn't actually cost them anything, there's no use of consumables, and it
also means that I'm available for urgent queries on that day, which my
colleagues feel is more valuable than not having me around.
AF
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Webster" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 7:06 AM
Subject: Re: grasping the nettle!medicolegal work in Emergency medicine
> It may only be 30p this time but they all add up....and that colleague may
> be using all trust resources for all his private correspondence.
>
> Andy
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Accident and Emergency Academic List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of McCormick Simon Dr,
> Consultant, A&E
> Sent: 01 October 2006 21:55
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: grasping the nettle!medicolegal work in Emergency medicine
>
> We had the Chief Executive come to a Hospital Consultants Meeting and
> say that he had received a complaint about private work. A patient (I
> think a solicitor) had received a letter about a private consultation
> with a hospital franking on the front. This was use of NHS resources
> for private work and was unacceptable.
>
> If people are prepared to get upset over 30p worth of postage I think
> there would be more upset over consultants doing private work when they
> are being paid to do NHS work.
>
> Simon
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Adrian Fogarty [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 01 October 2006 00:48
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: grasping the nettle!medicolegal work in Emergency medicine
>
> I agree with Craig. Surely the rules are quite clear, particularly with
> the
> new consultant contract. Such work must be done in your own time; it's
> not
> part of SPA time. Doing such work on site is not a particular problem as
>
> long as such work doesn't materially interfere with your colleagues or
> the
> department. But your 2.5 SPA sessions (or whatever your contract) must
> be
> used for NHS purposes only, that's quite clear.
>
> AF (declaration: have a large medicolegal practice which is undertaken
> in my
> own time)
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "mark nicol" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2006 7:30 PM
> Subject: grasping the nettle!medicolegal work in Emergency medicine
>
>>I would value assistance in benchmarking how other people organise
>>medicolegal work to obviate or at least minimise tensions between
>>colleagues- some who do do it and some who do not?I am about to go to
>>advert for two more consultants and I want to avoid applicants from
>>undertaking medicolegal work without some robust line in the sand of
>>acceptability.
>> 1.which of the following do you agree with:
>> medicolegal work (that aspect pertaining to income generating work
> from
>> solicitors to see patients and do reports) should be done
>> a) off site and in own doctors time
>> b) on site but after hours
>> c) on site but in SPA time and limited to 2 patients only per week
>> d) on site, in SPA, no finite limit to number of patients at all
>>
>> Thank you for your help on this topic.Am I right in thinking this is
> one
>> of the top three sources of tension between consultants in Emergency
>> medicine?
>> mark at macc
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
>
> Listen to the highlights from Radio Doctors.net.uk
> http://www.doctors.net.uk/login/?shorturlidX57
> ________________________________________________________________________
|