OPINION: Fake appointments update

I was saddened to read the recent article regarding fake appointments. I first wrote on this issue in 2018 and had hoped the article would now be a historic document.

I believe to punish an individual for this action misses the bigger picture. The news story was of a GP who had booked in fake appointments to ensure they could leave work on time.

If this decision in this case was correct or not is not being debated here. The issue remains that we are often trying to manage our own welfare in a system that seems to have no ability to be flexible to the context of the clinician or clinic.

Earlier blog

From my 2018 blog I noted that in my experience fake appointments were a sign of team burnout and a broken system of organising staff diaries.

We know we may need to stay late to complete patient care or deal with a genuine emergency, but an emotional impact occurs over time. And if this is compounded by daily events of overbooked diaries and no leeway for inevitable emergency or unexpected case.

The workplace that ignores these issues and does not see them as a warning sign are missing opportunities to improve their staff well-being.

Emotional burden

In the past 8 years we now have better words for these issues. We can recognise and talk about the emotional burden of our work, compassion fatigue and moral injury. But it seems that the actions we are sometimes forced to take to personally manage our well-being are being judged.

If systems remain broken then we can create as much terminology as we like to discuss issues, but we need to also be making a change to how basic things like diary management impact on welfare.

Yes, my patients are animals and not humans but the pressure on the clinicians remains the same. Could 2026 be the year we move staff well being to the core of our health care provision.

The benefits of a context of clinician team care first are immeasurable, and should be seen as a human and animal welfare necessity. I really don’t want to re-visit this in another eight years and in 2034 be writing something so similar.