We have now completed our sixth year of operations. During the year we have achieved our main target, namely to increase the number of admissions of doctors.

Fundraising has occupied much of the time and effort during the year. Two bids have been prepared and submitted; the first to the King's Fund and the second to The Henry Smith Charity that we hope will provide us with an income of £150,000 per year for three years. The Trustees realise that much work will have to be done in order to persuade the Medical Profession to support and finance this project. There have been significant developments in our ability to influence and change the opinion of the profession by membership of the National Authority for Clinical Assessment.

The Department of Health has encouraged us to form a committee that represents each of the Health Professional schemes, with the objectives of advising the Department on addiction among employees in the NHS and to negotiate with the Department for funding. The committee formed is called CHITS [Clinicians' Health Intervention, Treatment & Support]. It is hoped that in the future this committee will exert influence on policy as we will have a direct route to the Chief Medical Officer.
We were able to assist the BDDG with a grant towards the cost of the scientific day for the Convention and hope to be able to repeat this on an annual basis.

Only one intervention has been carried out in the period covered by the report, as we have found that the majority of potential patients requiring admission are willing to be assessed on a formal basis. During the past year there has been an increase in the number of direct referrals to the treatment centres by Consultant Psychiatrists, and in addition an increase in self-referrals stimulated by ex patients.

back to top

In preparing funding applications a complete re appraisal of the 5-year plan has been undertaken by the fundraising team, assisted by a Management Consultant specialising in Health issues. The team has identified several needs that we will have to address in the near future.

1. Trustee development
2. Telephone responders for Family help line
3. Telephone responders for Sick Doctors Trust
4. Training recovering doctors in assessment and intervention skills

Future development will entirely depend on whether we are successful in raising the necessary funding.

Visits to other units
The CEO has paid a visit to the Homewood Health Centre in Ontario, Canada. This centre has an excellent international reputation for the treatment of Health Professionals. He had an opportunity to sit in on group therapy sessions, lectures, business meetings, horticultural therapy, intensive out patient therapy and long-term therapy. Homewood is an impressive unit in every sense. It is 60% privately funded and 40% State funded. The Ontario Physicians Health Programme (PHP) was also visited. This organisation mirrors the activities of the SDT.

The Ontario Medical Association, the equivalent of the BMA, funds the PHP. It runs the urine monitoring service. There are 6 staff, housed in excellent office accommodation and well equipped with computer facilities. The budget is £400,000 per year. The Ontario PHP deals with 30 doctors per year and currently monitors 160 doctors.

Liaison with Benevolent Societies
A seminar was arranged by the Royal Medical Foundation, which was attended by all the major medical benevolent funds apart from the BMA Charities. An excellent talk was delivered on debt management by one of the major debt management companies. This was a very useful exercise, as many of these Charities have assisted us with doctors who have had serious debt problems.

back to top

We continue to advertise in both the Clinical and General Practitioner issues of the BMJ. The majority of the contacts still come through the help line and the BMA. The Trust has developed a Web Site at www.sick-doctors-trust.co.uk which has received in excess of 700 hits and made two contacts in 7 months.

back to top

We are arranging to share data in the publication of research papers on outcomes of treatment with Professor Hamed Ghodse of St Georges Hospital.

back to top

The Medical Council on Alcohol
We have excellent co-operation with this body and still receive a significant number of referrals from them.

BMA
There have been no positive results from the BMA enquiry into the need for a treatment programme for medical practitioners. It is still the opinion of the BMA that the NHS should be responsible for the treatment of addicted doctors.
We had a successful stand at the Joint meeting of Local Medical Committee's, held in London during June of last year and also distributed advertising material at the AGM held later in the year in each of the delegate packs.

The NHS Executive
As a result of a meeting with representatives of this body a Committee consisting of the major Health Professional Programmes and SDT has been formed. The Chairman is Dr Douglas Fowlie who is independent of all the Programmes. The aims of this committee are twofold:

1. to advise on the development of a programme for the treatment of addicted NHS employees
2. to negotiate with the DOH for financial assistance

St George's Medical School
Reference has already been made to intended co-operation with this establishment.

BMA Counselling Service and National Counselling Service for Sick Doctors
There has been little contact with the BMA Counselling Service. The CEO has met with Dr Jolyon Oxley of the NCSSD to discuss areas where we may be able to assist each other.

back to top

Considerable progress has been made since the last Annual Report. Barbara and David Stone have done sterling work in identifying Charities funding organisations, which work in the field of addiction. As a result we have made an application to the King's Fund that was initially rejected. Subsequently a decision was made by the King's Fund to proceed with the application. After a meeting with a Senior Grant officer the King's Fund decided to pay for a Management Consultant to assist us in preparing the bid. Several all day meetings were held and the bid has now been prepared and presented. We have applied for £78,000 in the first year.

Sufficient work has been done to make other submissions. The Chair, Dr Chang, has made contact with the Henry Smith Charity and a bid has been submitted for £67,000 in the first year.

Another bid, to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, in conjunction with St Georges Medical School is to be processed in May.

It will be necessary to raise much more income from LMCs in the future although a number of them have made significant contributions and, we hope, will continue to do so.

Gift aid contributions from individuals need to be increased.

back to top

The registration of the Sick Doctors Trust as a company in England and also a Registered Charity have been completed.

back to top

1. The number of admissions to specialised units preferred by the SDT has increased to 41 for the past year.
2. We have excellent follow up facilities both in the aftercare programmes and through the BDDG meetings.
3. The number of female doctors who contact us and are admitted, remains low but is comparable with the uptake of female doctors in the USA and Canada.
4. Opiates and other drugs are more frequently used although alcohol remains the major drug of abuse.

back to top