A little over a year ago DZ wrote about a surgeon who had successfully negotiated yearly appraisals and periodic revalidation despite causing harm to hundreds of patients over many years.
Well here is another. The emerging pattern is one of appraisal being no barrier to poor performance.
And yet DZ has seen instances where poor performance has not only been picked up, but also acted on. Not by the GMC, but, surprisingly, by private health insurance companies. On more than one occasion he has encountered practitioners who have been informed by insurance companies that they would no longer be reimbursed by those companies for certain specific procedures. Presumably the insurers audit practitioners and flag up instances where either a higher than expected proportion of patients receive a certain procedure, or there is a disproportionate incidence of complications
In those cases DZ has seen, no restrictions were placed on the doctor by their NHS employer.
So credit where it's due. The private sector has a system of identifying poorly performing doctors that actually works. Without making anyone go through the joke that is appraisal. The NHS & GMC don't.
