Ethical questions and scenarios are commonly used in exams and training for medical students and resident doctors. I remember one question that I struggled to answer:
“You are working an evening shift on a medical ward. It is half an hour after your shift is due to end, the night doctor has not yet arrived, and you need to collect your children from childcare. What do you do?”
For many doctors working in the NHS, this is not a theoretical dilemma but a real-life problem. A colleague once told me of a situation where they were the on-call GP and received a call from a patient’s family member requesting an urgent home visit for their unwell relative. At the time, the GP was already late to collect their child from school. The option they chose was to collect the child and take them on the home visit. When the GP arrived with their 7-year old in tow, the patient immediately improved and leapt to the cupboard to provide sweets to the child. These situations demonstrate the difficult balance between professional responsibility and personal obligations in an overstretched system. This has been highlighted recently in the case of UK GP Dr Helen Eisenhauer.
Dr Eisenhauer was suspended for five months after booking two false appointments at the end of her working day, so as to avoid finishing late and enable her to collect her children from school.[1] Testimonials from her patients and colleagues spoke of her otherwise exemplary character and her high level of proficiency. Yet, she was suspended for her dishonesty. So, while Dr Eisenhauer may have failed the above ethical question, we should ask why she was forced into making that choice in the first place. Working as a GP is hard. To be honest, it was the toughest trainee job I had as well, and this includes working in an ICU, A&E, and various medical and surgical jobs. I can’t begin to fathom how challenging it must be when you add kids to the equation.
Flexible work environments are vital to support the wellbeing of healthcare staff and their families, as is a well-funded and reliable childcare system. Without these supports, clinicians are left to absorb systemic failures individually, often at significant personal and professional cost.
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References:
[1] Dyer C. GP suspended for faking appointments to pick up her children on time. BMJ. 2025;391:r2690. doi:10.1136/bmj.r2690. https://www.bmj.com/content/391/bmj.r2690.full.