GP faked appointments to fit in school pick-up

A GP has been suspended for faking appointments with patients she did not need to see to allow her to collect her children after school.

On one Friday in July 2024, Dr Helen Eisenhauer - who has worked at Stenhouse Medical Centre in Arnold, Nottinghamshire, since 2018 - booked face-to-face appointments for two patients she had already spoken to on the phone, a tribunal heard.

When "anomalies" were found in the notes of one of the patients, Dr Eisenhauer was investigated and later referred herself to the General Medical Council to admit the allegations.

The tribunal found she had committed serious misconduct by "putting her own interests before her patients", and suspended her for five months.

Dr Eisenhauer had been due to end her shift at 16:45 BST on 17 June 2024 and had to pick up her children by 18:00.

The tribunal, held in December, heard she was "worried about what might get booked in" so she placed the names of two patients she had already consulted over the phone that day.

When first questioned by the practice about this, she did not accept she had been dishonest.

But she told the tribunal she now accepted she had been dishonest and said she had not been sleeping well at the time due to her parenting responsibilities.

Dr Eisenhauer said if she was suspended, it would have a negative impact on the practice and its patients, as well as on her family.

But the tribunal ruled she should be suspended for five months to "reflect the gravity of her conduct and send out a clear signal to Dr Eisenhauer, the profession and the wider public".

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