S C P Executive Committee meetings:

Brief extracts adapted from Minutes of SCP executive committee meetings November 2005 & January 2006

ECT and NICE recommendations. We still await a reply from the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Dr Ward will raise this issue in his meeting with the President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists arranged for February 2006. Other matters to be raised will include: the implications in New Roles for Psychiatrists of diminished professional standing and authority of the psychiatrist; the alarming reduction in numbers of psychiatric in-patient beds (also commented upon in a recent MHAC report); continuing failings in community care; need for continuing existence of suspended doctors group; the dangers in doctors drawing attention (publicly) to perceived failings in the health service; creeping privatisation of the psychiatric service, already well established in the forensic and child and adolescent services; concerns about special needs service (learning disability).

Dr John Harding Price wrote to propose a mission statement to outline current objectives of the Society. He saw the need for posting on our website a clear definition of our function and what we can offer; we expect to provide independent opinion on mental illness, and on the nature of an effective psychiatric service; emphasis should be placed on providing a mental illness rather than a mental health service (though mental health is also an important consideration as an aspect of preventative medicine). The Society should endorse good clinical practice and the need for regulatory bodies to be in agreement on the standards to be applied. Dr Price commented on the importance of taking into account views of the general public, and to the extent of co-opting lay members into the SCP. The role of the psychiatrist should be defined and put on website.

Psychiatric Treatment Dr Tomlin said that the Society as an organisation cannot provide psychiatric treatment; its role is to give advice to the public and to respond to any enquirers on what should be available by way of treatment and how best to obtain this.

Professional regulation and regulatory bodies; there must be expert advice as well as expert opinion for the benefit of lay members. The courts tend to back GMC judgements. The role of Hospital Managers needs discussing. Concern was voiced that the GMC has published on-line search (unsupported) remarks about registered medical practitioners.

Access to SCPNET As we no longer publish the paper journal the website is now our main means of publicity, and there have been a number of important topical issues over the past twelve months. The editor/webmaster had taken exception to references to the question of difficult access to the SCP website for members of executive committee. He asked for such references, considered erronious, to be deleted, but members accepted the minutes as a correct record unanimously. [Those references are omitted from the present summaries; for full texts apply to the Honorary Secretary]

Next meeting: Thursday 2 March 2006, 2 p.m., at the Priory Hospital, Roehampton.

(Editor)