Anyway, conclusion reached was that she should have her pay increased to match but that this would be difficult to do currently as she’d be alerted to discrepancy / wonder why her pay and nobody else’s was being increased.

She’s a better member of staff than the newish recruit who is on more and is responsible for helping train her higher paid replacement.

“is there something you’re not disclosing here?”

The staff member in question and one of the other partners don’t get on and there have been accusations of bullying. She’s one of 8 or 9 staff members who do the same job- her pay is lowest of the lot, the rest being paid almost the same as each other but with slightly more for those who’ve been there longest, apart from her. Hence it seemed unfair to me. I’ve no personal interest I promise :).

Perfectly acceptable to pay different rates to staff doing the same job, the company can even have a non disclosure of wages in their contracts, only time it becomes illegal is if it is being sexist, ie employing a man and a woman and paying one of them less because of their set.

Interesting how this works and how complicated and costly for all it must make sex discrimination claims.

So leave it as it is

Why? (I’m interested, not arguing.)

Oh dear, if Ben is male there’s a whole shitstorm coming your way!

Thankfully, Ben is also a girl. :)

It’s not quite that straightforward unfortunately muppetWrangler- I’m new, on a mutual assessment period but in a strong negotiating position. Including me, there are 5 partners in the business and one of them really doesn’t like this member of staff so would gladly see her (oops!) go. The points you make in your first reply are points I was planning to make, was just wondering if there might be something in law I could persuade the other partners we needed to mitigate against too. It seems there’s not. Thanks.

P.s. Nobody has asked me to look into this- I spotted it whilst looking into another pay discrepancy that I had been asked to look into. As an aside, the fact that staff are asking the new boy is somewhat worrying!

Tell the boss OP you want equal pay or your leaving.
Are you really valued that much? If so then you’ll get more money, if not your work colleague will get somebody new to talk to.

That’s what I’d do if I was Bill. As it is, I’m a new partner in this business (i.e. Bill’s employer) and I don’t know if Bill knows about the disparity. Hoping to put it right but I know I’m going to encounter significant resistance since Bill and one of the other partners don’t get on. I may have to make an ultimatum of my own to get things changed but I’d prefer not to if I can avoid it.

Is Bill a woman?

Bill and Ben both have a feminine side.

I’m surprised it has been accepted; I’m inclined to think Bill probably hasn’t twigged.

I’ve just taken up a partnership at this company and am hoping to put this right (spotted whilst investigating another staff pay discrepancy I was asked to look at) whilst I’m still seen as new/naive but suspect I’ll encounter a little resistance.

Is the job being a flower pot man?

:)

Names changed to protect the innocent.

Bill needs to go on a work to rule!

:)

I think Bill kind of has, which is a complicating factor!

why another thread? Where did the first one go??

Possibly rhabdomyolysis. Likely to resolve without intervention but perhaps see your GP (especially if any other symptoms).

My doc is pretty good and getting a that day appointment often works.
What pisses me off is that I can’t book ahead. If its not urgent I want to plan around work. I call to be told that they can’t book ahead and I have to call first thing in the morning.

The problem is that there aren’t enough appointments to go around!

At one end of the spectrum you can book ahead but have to tolerate long waits (1st appointment with Dr Popular is in 3 weeks) plus the 8am phone scrum for emergency/on the day appointments. At the other end you have all appointments on the day only with a guarantee that everyone who calls any particular day and wants to be seen will be (but most are dealt with by phone). There’s then all sorts of hybrid systems but none is perfect. Part of the problem is that GP practices serve different populations with very different priorities, from the chronic sick who are normally old/ not in work to the young, normally fit and well who need access around work. Keeping everyone happy is nigh on impossible. Perhaps we need to separate practices into those that cater for the normally fit and well and those that cater for those with long-term problems- walk in clinics and suchlike work a bit like this already.

As an aside, I reckon 10 minute appointments are unsafe for many patients…

We speak to everyone first, guarantee to see everyone who needs seeing on the day they call. Seems to work pretty well apart from the fact we’re running at flat out, especially if someone’s off work.

Each week 9.2% of our patients call to request an appointment.
Each week we see (face to face) 4% of our patients.
(This doesn’t include nurse appointments.)

That equates to me phoning 40-75 patients each day, seeing 15-30 of them and visiting 1 or 2 plus prescription requests and letters, blood results, etc. We’re at the high end of demand as a practice. Just know that we don’t deliberately make it difficult for patients to see us (we spend time and money trying to make it easy)- sometimes I wonder why we bother!

Great news. Cheers Rich. :)

It was intact 3 weeks ago, dried out a bit the last couple of days too. Until last night maybe!

My take on it would be DSRs don’t apply but what’s printed on your receipt does…

Thank you both. It appears it does have the newer version (and a 5 year warranty, though not transferable if sold… may just keep it and buy the other bike I have my eye on anyway). :)

Thanks. YHM.

Really sorry to hear about this.

Richpips- the injured man’s wife isn’t Tracey is it?

Salsa Beargrease (XX1 of course) has caught my eye recently. Last month it was a Fat Chance Yo Eddy frame. Have so far managed not to buy…

Franksinatra- everyone has to go through the call back system (or the whole thing falls apart we’ve found) but they can choose to say to receptionist and dr “I don’t want to discuss it over the phone, I just want to book an appointment”. Probably 1 or 2 a day do this (per dr). It’s more of a problem for the hard of hearing elderly and for people with poor English but it still works so long as you default to a face to face appointment.

I’m a GP. We run a system called Doctor First where every patient who calls to request an appointment first speaks to a doctor. About 60-70% can be safely managed over the telephone, 30-40% need to be seen face to face. Patients call on the day they want an appointment and provided they call before 5pm are guaranteed to be seen on that day. Patients love it (with the odd exception). We moved to this system because we weren’t able to offer patients an appointment within a reasonable time frame.

To give you some idea of workload- we have 7600 registered patients on our list and average about 800 appointment requests per week. We have 4 full time equivalent GPs. We work 10-12 hour days by the time referrals, letters, blood tests etc are done. Yesterday I called 53 patients, saw 20 in face to face appointments and did 3 home visits. Demand for appointments has risen significantly over the past few years and continues to do so. Walk in clinics are funded to the tune of 2-3x what we are (per patient).

Definitely worth getting the chimney swept- shouldn’t cost too much.

Good companies prioritise their existing customers don’t they?

How quickly did Canyon get your bike to you after you ordered it?

Thanks. Perhaps I’ll have to get a “If you’re a bailiff then you’re trespassing” notice :-)

Thanks folks, that’s helpful.

Hopefully there won’t be any more visits. The bailiff who visited this morning seemed to already know that the house no longer belonged to the person named on the ccj and also seemed to know he’d gone to France (consistent with what our neighbours have said), perhaps he just turned up on the off chance.

I’m a doctor, currently UK resident but previously in NZ.

I wouldn’t come back to the UK for CMT / medical career unless you’re pretty sure you’re going to stay in the UK.

I’d also say that UK medical training is now a production line where there is very limited opportunity to take time out to do interesting stuff that gives you great experience and improves your skills. This means you’re qualified quicker, but (depending on speciality) you’re going to come off the production line with a glut of others and little to distinguish yourself from them- in that sort of tough jobs market an extra 2 years in NZ now may not be the end of the world, especially since those appointing will have come through on the older system. One note of caution – unless things have changed, you’ve got to be a bit careful about being too experienced to get the CMT jobs (> a certain amount of experience used to disqualify you from applying but this may have changed).

Apologies if I’m teaching granny to suck eggs, just my 2p worth!

Good luck.

Who can you use from business broadband and phones if not BT?

Was a BT home customer, have now escaped their clutches but in the process of setting up shop and very keen to avoid their business omnishambles.

Unfortunately, Google apps stopped offering free accounts a few days ago – all now paid, from $5 pet month IIRC. Doesn’t effect existing free accounts.

GP, seems one of the few reasonably secure fields and unlikely to be out sourced to China any time soon….

Interesting perception, mainly as it is the polar opposite of mine (apart from the China bit) – and I’m a GP.

One of the problems I have is that if I pipe up with “sod the depression it’s anxiety we should be treating” line i’m going to be pissing on a lot of people’s chips.

Not necessarily a bad thing. Whose chips?

There is a body of research that shows a link between depression and poor outcomes with OA knees. But what I think I’m seeing is a lot of misdiagnosed anxiety.

Suspect the devil may be found in the detail – how exactly has “depression” been diagnosed in the research? Does it say? Can you find any further research that links the test that has been used to the diagnosis of anxiety?

the general public eh?!

I know, but then healthcare professionals are the worst patients of all! :-)

if so could you explain a little more as to what sort of anxiety you’re discussing glumpton?

Yes, are we talking generalised or situational (fear-avoidance)?

Thanks philconsequence!

it’d help if GP’s made the clear point that taking antidepressants is meant to be an everyday thing, not (and it never fails to annoy me) like when i overhear people day ‘having a bit of a blue day today so i popped a couple of those tablets the doctor gave me, feeling better already’

I am a GP and I always stress that point. Nevertheless, it is amazing just how many patients completely ignore what I say :-)

I’m also presuming OA is osteoarthritis, don’t know it as an abbreviation for anything else.

Anxiety and depression not infrequently coexist and feed each other.

It’s more complex than this, but to my mind the defining features of depression are loss of interest in usual activities and feeling you have nothing to look forward to (another way to put these two is as a profound loss of motivation). The defining features of anxiety are apprehension (panic) and consequent avoidance of usual activities. So they are different.

If a GP prescribes an antidepressant (SSRI, etc), whether for anxiety or depression, they have to use the PHQ-9 or they don’t get paid. I wonder if this is why it’s always “there’s an association between depression and condition of interest”, rather than anxiety and condition of interest. The PHQ-9 is used to assess depression severity and isn’t great for that in my experience. As a tool for assessing anxiety it is useless.

depression is quite often misdiagnosed by GP’s and other doctors, the way it is assessed it pretty poor IMHO and its very frustrating for the mental health services to be stuck with clients who aren’t depressed but because the GP said they might be and threw some antidepressants at them…. they then moulded their life around their new diagnosis and adopted the life of an unwell person… usually pushing them slowly towards true depression.

Agreed (as alluded to above), but this is mostly about extremely poor access to other treatment options + a patient who feels desperate + varying opinions over what “depression” actually means.

Well done on catching the toe rag!

On PayPal gift – it aint about the money! As a seller I feel it gives me an element of protection because PayPal are rumoured always to side with the buyer and I worry that I’ll be scammed. I’d always refund if a buyer wasn’t happy with something but I think normal PayPal leaves you pretty vulnerable as a seller.

This sounds really stressful – sorry.

I don’t think you have enough information for anyone to be able to give you any really useful information on here. A few general points:
1. Have you seen anyone other than the ultrasound person yet? Been able to ask any questions? Seems like you need to if not.
2. Amniotic fluid circulates – the baby swallows it then wees it out, so if a baby’s kidneys aren’t working then they won’t have any/much amniotic fluid. The right volume of amniotic fluid is definitely encouraging as it suggests kidneys are functional.
3. Do you have any family history of polycystic kidney disease? The cysts seen on scan could mean anything (or nothing) to be honest, but IIRC PKD is the commonest reason to find cysts on a scan.

You really need more information and to see someone to discuss things with face to face.

EDIT: ratherbeintobago’s suggestion of trying to speak to a fetal medicine consultant is a good one – they’re normally very accommodating if you explain that you work offshore (and they have your wife’s consent to talk to you directly).

I live in Great Broughton and have seen your posters dotted about – keeping eyes peeled and fingers crossed. My 3 year old daughter is also on the case. Where exactly did she go missing from?