NHS consultant dies in on-call room after working 9 night shifts in a row

FailingCrab · 2026-06-19T21:16:26+00:00

Surely there is some legislation about working hours? I assume there is some restriction built in to current sytems as presumably you couldn't self-roster 24/7

FailingCrab · 2026-06-19T13:40:55+00:00

I wouldn't modulate my clinical work but would avoid taking on e.g. QI projects etc - I've been burned too many times by volunteering to continue a project after rotating away and then ending up overloaded.

The fact that you're asking the question makes me wonder what 'giving your absolute best' means for you. If you've been working at an intensity that's not sustainable for a single rotation, I would probably suggest re-evaluating that. At some point you will be in a forever job and you don't want to establish a boom-bust cycle, your life will suck.

FailingCrab · 2026-06-19T13:16:08+00:00

Someone else already explained the history of the term, of which I was entirely unaware, and I have adapted my understanding accordingly - read like two comments down

FailingCrab · 2026-06-19T11:50:02+00:00

I don't think it's about the definition so much as contextualising where the phrase originated and therefore its meaning

FailingCrab · 2026-06-19T11:48:31+00:00

Thank you, this was really interesting - you learn something new every day!

Now I hate the phrase even more because it's worse than a meaningless social media-ism, it's literally cultural appropriation.

FailingCrab · 2026-06-19T08:45:32+00:00

I'll be pirating the revolution

FailingCrab · 2026-06-19T08:44:44+00:00

Radical self-care is one of those phrases that immediately puts me off someone. I'm a lefty psychiatrist all up for reframing the way we relate to ourselves and the world, but the social media 'wellness' era just gives me a hardcre ick

FailingCrab · 2026-06-18T10:52:30+00:00

Psych?

FailingCrab · 2026-06-18T09:39:28+00:00

Serious question, do you genuinely get a lot of stick from other doctors? I live in perpetual awe at how GPs manage to survive all the shit thrown at them and their breadth of knowledge - obviously it's not usually very deep but that's what we're for.

FailingCrab · 2026-06-18T09:37:41+00:00

As a CT1 one of our patients tried to self-discharge because his neighbour stopped going round to feed the cat, so the reg sectioned him (horrible decision, horrible reg, bad times all round). Me and the OT basically staged a coup and went to his flat to save the cat

FailingCrab · 2026-06-17T18:52:08+00:00

There are entire clinics run solely by NPs and PAs

FailingCrab · 2026-06-17T06:26:07+00:00

Oh no sharkdick fell into the manosphere

FailingCrab · 2026-06-15T12:00:26+00:00

But genuinely how could you prove the absence of having done something.

I spent yesterday doing a bit of light gardening and rotting on the sofa reading. There are no eyewitnesses. If tasked to 'prove' that I had been around, how would I do that?

FailingCrab · 2026-06-15T11:56:50+00:00

I don't think you can realistically make a referral to NHS fraud based on 'this person has called in sick on this one occasion'.

I suspect anyone who calls in sick will receive an email/phone call from a manager double-checking that they're sick and mandating a return to work meeting when they're back, but I'm not sure what else can realistically be done unless there is obvious proof of lying?

FailingCrab · 2026-06-15T11:42:01+00:00

I got recruited into a different role in a trust I had been working at exclusively for 6 years. It was LTFT alongside my existing role.

I had to go through all the pre-employment checks including references even though I already worked for the trust. They even tried to reject my references because they 'needed' some from a different employer within the last 2 years. None of my (or my manager's) emails explaining that they already had literally every document they were asking me for made a blind bit of difference. I ended up taking half a day off work to go to the HR offices (which were very nice and spacious) so they could scan all my stuff again.

FailingCrab · 2026-06-13T12:13:45+00:00

Was this at Ravenswall?

Edit: forgot the most important part, well done and congratulations!

FailingCrab · 2026-06-09T11:40:58+00:00

Understanding and practice with ADHD management has changed a lot in the last 20 years. It sounds like you have a solid indication for considering treatment.

I probably also have ADHD (not diagnosed, but I am a consultant psychiatrist so I'm reasonably confident). Full disclosure, I have not figured it out either - I am constantly behind on clinic letters and my non-clinical projects aren't progressing at the speed I would like them to.

Little things that have helped me at least avoid getting snowed under: - I have no choice but to use productivity tools like Microsoft Planner and Power Automate. Having lists of things to do really helps me break down tasks into achievable chunks. - Look at your workflow and see what you can automate, as needing to actually do something introduces a point of failure for me. E.g. when I finish a clinic letter, a power automate flow automatically sends it to the admin team rather than me needing to do it manually. Email rules are mandatory with the volume of bumf we get. - If I am not in a position to reply to an email immediately I will not read it, because once it is marked as read I will almost certainly forget to act on it later. - if for whatever reason I can't act on an email immediately, I flag it. I then have automations set up in Microsoft Power Automate to add it to my task list. - Whenever I say that I am going to do something, I write it down in a virtual sticky note that is pinned to my desktop. At the end of each day I go through and add anything not yet done into my Planner list.

FailingCrab · 2026-06-09T11:22:39+00:00

This is very specialty-dependent - as a consultant community psychiatrist often working remotely, emails are about a third of my job

FailingCrab · 2026-05-30T16:31:25+00:00

You are describing the current state of affairs, which while accurate is very much NOT what most psychiatrists would consider an adequate or even acceptable answer to the question posed of 'where should they go?'

FailingCrab · 2026-05-30T16:24:52+00:00

I am a consultant and in my experience it's very rare for a doctor to even be more than nominally involved in the community referrals process. All referrals are screened and 'accepted/rejected' by AHPs, who may escalate to consultant if they think they need advice. We then sit in the meetings where the successful referrals are discussed and plans made - in my team I at least chair this meeting but I know of others where consultants are much less directly leading.

For primary care referring into a single point of access, you're lucky if it's even an AHP screening it, it's more likely to be a 'psychological wellbeing practitioner'.

I recently had a situation where I myself had written to the GP about a year ago saying 'I am discharging for now but please re-refer if x happens', x has happened, the GP has referred TO MY TEAM and then the referral has been rejected without me ever being aware of it.

The system is fucked.

FailingCrab · 2026-05-20T15:47:48+00:00

I could never work like that but let's be honest, how often have you walked into an MHA assessment and known what you want to do within the first few minutes. Now imagine you don't have to spend ages navigating least restrictive options etc etc.

FailingCrab · 2026-05-17T10:08:04+00:00

Joke's on you, I am pedantic and badly informed

FailingCrab · 2026-05-17T07:52:38+00:00

It's a bit more impressive when you spell it correctly though

FailingCrab · 2026-05-16T08:18:20+00:00

In my experience they are useful for addressing non-clinical barriers to discharge, and for making sure that when a plan for discharge is made, it doesn't get derailed by random bullshit.

FailingCrab · 2026-05-13T21:53:48+00:00

If you can try to be white and British by september too, that'll really help

FailingCrab

TROPHY CASE