Doc frustrated by NHS process
Retired consultant foiled by red tape
A recently retired doctor has been foiled by bureaucracy in his attempt to offer his medical expertise during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr Crawford Reid worked as a consultant anaesthetist with NHS Forth Valley and did the odd bank shift for NHS Tayside.
The retired consultant said his attempts to help out during the health crisis had been “an unmitigated disaster.”
Dr Reid (65), who serves as a Perth and Kinross councillor for Strathallan, officially retired in July 2019, getting his P45 from NHS Tayside in August and then September from NHS Forth Valley.
But keen to be of service, he got himself back on the General Medical Council register in late March as soon as the call was put out for help with the COVID crisis.
He told the PA: “To get through all the next set of hoops and hurdles has been virtually impossible. It really has been a bit of a bureaucratic nightmare.
“There is a general frustration from those who have been shown to be willing and the system has not been willing to be flexible. You have to put in a CV and a job application as if applying for a longterm job rather than helping in a crisis situation.
“One of my friends is an intensivist. He was told to submit his CV and an application after a year out the job. One of his colleagues would vouch for him. It’s the same length of time as maternity leave.”
He suggested he and others in his position could have been initially supervised by another doctor to check they were still able to do the job.
Dr Reid conceded he has been called upon a couple of times during the pandemic on an ad-hoc basis to help out at Kings Park in Stirling but that nothing official had been put in place.
And while the demand placed on the NHS by COVID-19 was not as high as initially feared, Dr Reid thinks the NHS could face “more of a crisis” in three to six months’ time when it tries to clear the backlog of patients waiting for elective procedures.
He added: “Folk having to wait was bad enough before. They will have to clear the backlog and I am more than happy to go up to PRI and do a day a week.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We are sincerely grateful for more than 18,000 expressions of interest from individuals who have come forward to support health and social care services through the accelerated recruitment portal which, in light of the outstanding response received from returners to health and social care, has been temporarily paused to new applicants with effect from May 1.
“We are constantly assessing requirements to ensure we are deploying staff in a way that is responsive to the changing phases of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As we move through different phases of the pandemic and start to remobilise services across our health and social care system, their support, skills and experience will be vital but we will also carefully review the system to ensure that any unnecessary steps are removed whilst making sure the necessary preemployment or validation checks are completed.”