4 doctors suspended due to cardiff erreo

[voiceofmedical]

I am close to one of the affected doctors that was suspended on the 14th of last month and wanted to tell their story.

On August 4th 2009 he started work in the A&E department in Prince Philip hospital, Llanelli. He had passed his medical finals and justified the stress he had put his wife and child through over the previous 3 months of revision, and the sacrifices they had all made over the last 9 years in his pursuit of this degree; a first degree in Chemistry and dropping out of a PhD after 2 years just to get onto this course, such was the competition for places. He had ended a quarter of a century of education that had started with primary school and ended with him standing in front of his family, peers and the consultants that had taught him, to swear the Hippocratic oath and mark the beginning of a new chapter of his life. Like all the graduates, he spent the time until he started work celebrating, until there was no celebration left in him.He worked tirelessly in A&E, often being sent off the floor on the insistence of his seniors and colleagues, having worked well beyond his timetabled hours. This was proving to be the most exciting time of his life.


he was taken aside by his consultant and told he was no longer deemed fit to practice and that his position at the hospital was no longer tenable. Although unwilling to tell him the reason, it was only upon his insistence that he was told that Cardiff medical school had made an ‘error’ and that a representative of the medical school would meet with him in 2 hrs to explain. These proved to be the longest 2 hours of his life. He was told there had been a clerical error in transcribing the results of the finals and as such he had in fact failed one of his modules. Therefore he should not have graduated and not taken up a position as a doctor.

He was given 3 phone numbers to depart with; the first was that of the bearer of the bad news in case he had any questions over the weekend about the matter before he met the dean of the medical school on the Monday, the other two were for counseling should he need it over the weekend; the first of which never answered and the second was closed for the weekend. He turned on his way out of his meeting and asked one last question of the assembled crowd “can any of you tell me how I break the news to my wife and daughter?”. He spent the next couple of hours staring into a latte in the local Costas coffee bar trying to work out the best way to do this. This was going to be the hardest thing he had ever done. I don’t know how he did it, but they both cried a lot over the next couple of days, not for themselves but for him, having seen how excited he had been coming home from work each day and seeing the disappointment on his face as he took down his graduation picture from above the fireplace.

The following Monday he was called to ‘discuss’ the matter further; his options and the compensation he would be offered. As with the first meeting, he was not able to find an advocate to attend at such short notice, and as before he sat quietly, still in shock and was ‘told’ what had happened and what would now happen. He had to repeat his entire final year; despite his failing a single module, all the ones he had passed in the last year would be reassessed, and by way of an apology he would be reimbursed for any reasonable costs he had incurred since being given the wrong result (graduation cap and gown etc), and that the fees for the next year would be waived; the NHS bursary pay this automatically and as such meant nothing to him personally. The meeting ended with an apology and the customary few moments of silence all doctors are taught to allow when giving bad news.

Since this time he has had contradictory information from the university regarding the appropriateness and timing for an appeal and found out that a similar mistake was made 2 years ago. After that mistake, students were assured safeguards were put into place that would prevent it happening again. Yet, at home he sits, one of four doctors suspended in full public view, typing on his home computer, little else to do. The monotony of not working is compounded by thoughts that the medical school could have resolved this within weeks and he could now have been reinstated; within the pages of the medical school student handbook is a reassurance, an entitlement if you like, that some circumstances allow the medical school to give borderline students a viva, an oral exam, to assess their level of competence.

The 10 members of the exam executive thought the circumstances were so serious that 3 of the doctors be offered this, along with another 3 students that had failed in June, when they met on the 13th August, the day before they gave the bad news, and that this could be done by the 4th September. The exam board that met the next morning, despite a majority being in favour of the same, despite universities up and down the country using them, decided this hadn’t been used for a number of years and as such would not be used in this case.

There had been the chance to stop the emotional suffering of 4 suspended doctors and put a possible 6 doctors onto wards at minimal cost and effort, but it was thought that the circumstances were not serious enough or potentially harmful enough to the doctors to warrant its use. Instead they dictated the terms of his immediate future, a repeated year, working under doctors he was currently working alongside, reimbursement for the cost of his graduation and the taxpayer would pay the school another £50,000 for the privilege.
Apart from these 4 suspended doctors, in total 20% of the student body graduated with someone else’s grades.

[Fizzwizz]

Hi Voiceofmedical

Is it true that the 20% of students who received the wrong grade (~60 students) still don't know, and might actually have got a distinction with honours where only a pass was entered?

... Fizz

[gbsilp]

Are you saying that 3 of the ones who failed got a viva and are now reinstated? Also, your post made my eyes hurt. Can you break it up into more paragraphs please?

[Leo2004]

This sounds really harsh.

I do wonder why re testing can't happen
since the jobs need to be filled and there
seems to be provision for this!

[Fizzwizz]

Yes, the lack of paragraphs makes my eyes hurt too.

I think what is being said is that the Cardiff rule book allows for vivas, but the panel decided against this as a viva had not been given for many years.

It makes me wonder what the panel would deem a reasonable circumstance in which to grant the available viva mentioned in the rule book

I can't imagine how these 4 people must be suffering.

... Fizz

[gbsilp]

Yes, the lack of paragraphs makes my eyes hurt too.

I think what is being said is that the Cardiff rule book allows for vivas, but the panel decided against this as a viva had not been given for many years.

It makes me wonder what the panel would deem a reasonable circumstance in which to grant the available viva mentioned in the rule book

I can't imagine how these 4 people must be suffering.

... Fizz

Personally, I think it was too high profile for the medical school to give vivas. Daily Mail readers everywhere would be outraged at the fact that people who failed written exams could still become doctors by answering a few oral questions.

[voiceofmedical]

okay guys thanks for your comments.

1) Yes, 20% of the student body in Cardiff amounts to about 73 students that got the wrong grades due to an error and as such some have received honours/distinctions/merits etc without earning them and of course vice versa. As far as i am told, there are no statutes within the university rules that allow these to be adjusted

2)No, 3 of the 4 suspended doctors had failed by 1 or 2%, this meant that they were considered borderline and as such could, according to the 'rules' be offered a viva. IF the exam board thought the circumstances warranted it. The medical school don't think this situation is bad enough to do so and so the 4 are being treated like 'normal' failures

i will cut the above down into paragraphs too!

[Leo2004]

Personally, I think it was too high profile for the medical school to give vivas. Daily Mail readers everywhere would be outraged at the fact that people who failed written exams could still become doctors by answering a few oral questions.

I can conceive of some redtop journalists trying to convince the public that people
were outraged by this, if they thought fanning the flames of this story would sell copy...

However, I believe that vivas in medicine could easily be made to be as rigorous as writtens.

I still think this is overly harsh for all concerned as well as a loss to the NHS...

[voiceofmedical]

I think it was harsh; when you consider that each passed all the other elements of their final year and 'failed' a single exam by 1 or 2%. I think it better that exam be retested/examined with a viva rather than have them retake an entire year. Other universities have reasoned out this method of assessment and found in favour of it. It is published in the student handbook as an entitlement of students, why put it in there if there are no circumstances that warrant its use?

[gbsilp]

I can conceive of some redtop journalists trying to convince the public that people
were outraged by this, if they thought fanning the flames of this story would sell copy...

However, I believe that vivas in medicine could easily be made to be as rigorous as writtens.

I still think this is overly harsh for all concerned as well as a loss to the NHS...

If anything, I would imagine vivas are harder and is harsh. Still, it's all about damage limitation. For the record, before this news broke, Cardiff was on my if-I-screw-up-gamsat-I-will-go-for-these-one-instead list.