Champagne

It's the weekend and Dr Grumble has taken the bottle of champagne he was given by a patient earlier in the week home. The plan was to celebrate one of the Grumble children's birthday. No worries. What a nice present. But then Dr Grumble took a careful look at the champagne. It looked rather special. It is rather special. A quick googling and it is apparent that this is no ordinary supermarket champagne. It is from a good house and from a top vintage. It sells for up to £100 a bottle. Is that OK? Dr Grumble is uncomfortable. What are the rules? Is he allowed to accept gifts of such value from NHS patients? Is he allowed to accept gifts at all? He actually doesn't know. As is often the case gifts from patients can be rather unexpected and turning them down is awkward, very awkward. Dr Grumble's patient was plainly not wealthy. Dr Grumble did very little for her. He made her better but any competent doctor could have done the same. He treated her well but he did not spend long with her. He did not give her anything extra. And she is so well she has been discharged from the Grumble care. But it is worrying that the bottle she gave is worth £100. It's very nice that she thanked Dr Grumble but a nice letter would have been just as good. But she obviously wanted to do more than that. And Dr G thinks she should be allowed to. He has photocopied the champagne label and put it in his appraisal folder. He is not going to keep this gift a secret. It will be above board and if there is any trouble he will offer to send the patient a cheque for the champagne that Grumble is now intent on drinking.

Do such things happen often? It seems they do. A GP acquaintance has been given £1000 by a patient to spend on a holiday. The GP is uncomfortable. The patient has no relatives. She is grateful to the GP. Her money will be left to a charity when she dies. She wants the GP to have a holiday with her money. But do the rules allow that? Dr G certainly has no idea. What could be the best solution to this problem? Surely it is to put the money to a good cause within the GP practice. Yes, that's the answer. Buy some medical equipment with the money. But when this was suggested to the old lady tears welled up in her eyes. It was not what she wanted. She wants her GP to enjoy herself and take a holiday. Now, if the GP refuses this lady will certainly be upset. And surely there is nothing stopping her from leaving some of her money to the GP when she dies. And presumably there is nothing stopping the GP from accepting it. But how much nicer for the patient to see her GP take a holiday while she is still alive. But what about the rules?

A couple of weeks ago a patient came to see Dr G privately. Until recently Dr Grumble did not see any private patients but there is a need. This particular patient was not eligible for NHS care. He was a very ordinary man from abroad and plainly not well off. Dr Grumble put in a small bill. As it turned out an English friend was paying and a letter came back to Dr G with a cheque for three times the amount Dr Grumble had charged. The friend had clearly realised that Dr Grumble had wanted to undercharge this patient and the friend was having none of it. He wrote thanking Dr Grumble for the care he had given and stated firmly that the advice was worth three times what Grumble had charged and enclosed a cheque accordingly.

These things do happen. There are actually a lot of nice people in this world. Sometimes it does not seem that way but there are. People sometimes want to give to others. Dr Grumble wanted to undercharge his impoverished patient. The patient's friend wanted to pay Dr Grumble more. The GP's elderly patient wants her to have a holiday and wants to pay for it. Sometimes human beings want to do things that are very nice. It is a very nice feature of human beings when you see it. It doesn't happen all that often but it does happen. We should allow it to happen. Rules or no rules Dr Grumble is going to drink his champagne.