Physicians in the UK don't make as much as docs in the US. Most of them work for the National Health Service (NHS), where a junior doctor may make as little as £35,000 a year - the equivalent of about $44K. Hard to imagine any doctor putting up with that here! (Salaries in general, across many professions, are lower in the UK.) But I don't believe that NHS doctors have to work crazy hours, and I do believe that they're allowed to moonlight, taking more lucrative gigs on their days off.
But that apparently wasn't good enough for one fellow. Dr Daniel Coventry, 34, was supposed to be off work at the taxpayer's expense with a suspected virus but instead he was offering facial fillers, thread facelifts and anti-wrinkle jabs at a private clinic in Brighton. (Source: Daily Mail)
His grift was discovered for both reasons old-school - taking a suspicious amount of sick time - and predictably modern - bragging on social media. And it was enough to earn him a short-term suspension of his medical license for gross unprofessional misconduct. Covenry was sent to medical-world Coventry, as it were.
He apologized for his unbecoming conduct "and confessed to blaming his behavior on NHS 'failing.'"
Amazingly, his initial defense was that he hadn't bothered to read the rules and regulation about side hustles, implying that this was somewhat the fault of the NHS for not doing a good enough job with onboarding new doctors.
Even if one hasn't read the rules and regulations, even if one pointed one's finger at one's employer for not making sure one knew these rules and regulations, how could anyone think lying about being sick and using the paid time off to work another job is the right thing to do?
We're not talking about an occasional mental health day when you sit around reading and eating bonbons, or taking a nice, long walk to clear the cobwebs, or binge-watching Breaking Bad. We're talking about someone getting paid by the NHS to work with sick people, while also getting (better) paid for working with unsick folks who want to Botox their wrinkles into oblivion and get themselves some big old puffy Kardashian lips. And are willing and able to pay big bucks (big pounds?) out of pocket for the privilege.
Fortunately, Coventry - who is an Oxford-educated MD, thus at least reasonably intelligent - now claims to have seen the light.
In a statement Coventry said he now accepted 'not having a leg to stand on' at the 2023 hearing and vowed in future to be 'toeing the line no matter what the policy is.' He also said he would 'err on the side of caution' if he was unwell at work in future and follow hospital rules on treating patients.He goes on to state that it was only being suspended that got him to recognize "just how poor my behaviour had been." And that he's taken the opportunity of the suspension for "personal growth," including taking a free online course on Medical Professionalism, which gave him a "better understanding"of dishonesty.
He explained: 'My attitude during that hearing was overly defensive and on reflection I am quite embarrassed about this. I think that the depth to which I value being a doctor led to an automatic desire to bat away criticism of my behaviour rather than accept responsibility for what is such an obvious error of judgement.
'During that hearing I focused too much on my perception of the failures of the trust [which runs the NHS] and not enough on my personal failure to familiarise myself with the rules of the trust. Whilst I believe that the trust could have done more to support me, I also believe that I should have done more to support myself and absolutely did bear the responsibility to do so.'
He added: 'The judgment was the beginning of my realisation that what I had done was serious and that labelling it merely a mistake from lack of knowledge of the rule was insufficient to remedy the situation.
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