A family doctor who faked medical appointments at work so she would not be late for the afternoon school run has been suspended from treating patients.
Dr Helen Eisenhauer, 43, feared last-minute consultations booked in by colleagues would leave her unable to collect her two children from after-school club by 6pm.
The part-time locum GP made up two face-to-face appointments relating to patients with whom had telephone consultations earlier that day so she could leave by her normal 4.45pm finishing time, a tribunal heard.
Eisenhauer was caught out after a partner at the Stenhouse Medical Centre in Arnold, near Nottingham, noticed ‘anomalies’ in her booking arrangements and hauled her in for a meeting.
She initially denied wrongdoing but enquiries showed she had not only blocked her diary in the late afternoon to avoid seeing other patients but also falsified entries in the work diary suggesting she did have the face-to-face consultations.
The GP, who earns an estimated £60,000 a year, initially denied wrongdoing but then referred herself to the General Medical Council and admitted dishonesty.
She said she was struggling to ‘juggle her work and parental responsibilities’.
A Medical Practitioners’ Tribunal Service hearing was told Eisenhauer had joined the practice in 2018 but trouble began when she started suffering from sleep deprivation issues.
Dr Helen Eisenhauer, who has been suspended after admitting blocking her diary with fake appointments so she could leave the surgery on time
The dishonest conduct happened on July 17, 2024 when she had booked face-to-face appointments first with a Patient A, then with a Patient B, for slots at the end of her shift.
She knew that neither appointment was required as she had already undertaken telephone consultations with both patients earlier that day, the tribunal heard.
The case comes as NHS figures show lengthy delays for GP appointments continue to rise since Labour took office.
NHS figures show 1,770,000 people waited longer than four weeks for a GP appointment in November, according to analysis by the Liberal Democrats.
Across the autumn period as a whole, between September and November, 7.6 million patients waited more than four weeks to see a GP, up by more than 300,000 compared with the same period last year.
In her initial note to the GMC, Eisenhauer claimed she had mixed up which patients she had seen and was due to see.
But in evidence at the tribunal, Eisenhauer admitted lying, saying she had been under ‘strain from sleep deprivation resulting from her parenting responsibilities’.
She said that on the day in question, she had been scheduled to finish at 4.45pm and needed to leave the surgery promptly in order to collect her children by 6.00pm.
Mother-of-two Eisenhauer said she ‘did not consider the consequences’ of her actions
Eisenhauer said: ‘I was worried about what might be booked in and the impact this might have on my finishing time.
‘I recall thinking that the slot needed to have a named patient booked in and so added Patient B. I recall worrying that the slot could otherwise be filled with another patient that may delay my day further.’
Eisenhauer then revealed she entered notes on the practice’s records covering Patient B’s fake appointment after being reminded by a colleague two days later.
She said: ‘I did not consider the consequences of writing this entry at the time. I recollect only my worry and embarrassment.’
Eisenhauer told the tribunal of her ‘deep regret’ at her conduct, adding: ‘I feel that I have let the profession and myself down.’
She added: ‘The incident occurred at a time of particular stress for me when I was having to balance the demands of my young family with busy professional commitments.
‘I am thoroughly ashamed and am determined to never compromise the medical profession or myself again.’
Under cross examination, Eisenhauer accepted there was nothing unusual about that particular working day and that hers had been a ‘predictable challenge that many professionals face’.
She had chosen that day to undertake additional locum session work, but she had not made an appropriate fallback provision for childcare.
Katie Jones, representing the GMC, said: ‘She undermined a system designed to protect the public and undermined collaborative working as she repeatedly lied to colleagues.’
Eisenhauer was suspended from practise for five months after she admitted misconduct charges.
Tribunal chairman Neil Dalton said: ‘Dr Eisenhauer displayed a reckless disregard both for patient safety and for professional standards.
‘By such actions she undermined collaborative working, betraying the trust her colleagues needed to be able to place in her probity, as they worked side-by-side with her on a daily basis.’
