Annual Report  of

Suspended Doctors group

2007

This year has been a rather quiet year for the  group with the number of  suspended  doctors   contacting the group being  considerably reduced from previous years  although there was a slight surge  at the beginning of the year.  This  has been reflected  in the dwindling number of people attending the  Group’s bi monthly meetings. 

There has been however a new development  in the treatment of suspended  doctors. This is   either threatening to report the  doctor to the  General Medical Council  or  actually reporting them.  This  carries with it the stigma  that any doctor   about whom the GMC receives a complaint, no matter how trivial or unsupported or un-investigated that complaint may be,  that doctor’s  name  on the register is  tagged for life. The consequences of that  are,  the fact that a complaint has been received   about that doctor  will be made    available to any prospective user of that doctor’s  services without any explanation  that the complaint was  ill-formed  or  even malicious. That is   hospital trusts  are using this   as a bullying tactic.

Another profoundly worrying concern  is that the G.M.C. standards of what constitutes  conduct that would justify temporary or permanent  erasure from the Medical Register are decidedly fluid—very junior  doctors  will be erased on the most trivial of complaints, whereas   very senior doctors   can sometimes get away with---perhaps murder is too strong  but certainly criminal activity. This is particularly so  if the  senior doctor is a member of the establishment.   There is also a serious overtone of  racism  within the GMC   which is currently   being dealt  with  by the  CRE  commission.

Equally worrying  is the proposal  from the Government  in collusion with  the GMC  is that the burden of proof  for erasure from the register should be that  of  balance of probabilities.  This  is unlawful   It constitutes  a breach of the Human Rights Act  Strasbourg has ruled on several occasions  that where the outcome of so very serious   so should the threshold   be raised.  This also echoes  what previous judicial enquiries  or judgement  have made in the United Kingdom. 

The  Department of Health’s  attitudes  are changing somewhat in respect of  enquiries or complains received  from hospital trusts.  They are meant advise the trusts on how to proceed.,  What has happened  is that they have accepted  everything  told them by the hospital  trust  is  accurate and truthful, have made no attempt to verify the accuracy of the allegations, the hospital trust has  proceeded  citing  that this was  with the advice  from the DoH. The DoH  are slowly beginning to realise   that they  have been manipulated  by  certain trusts, and on occasion have been told  frank untruths.  This perpetuation  on injustice  has  cost the tax payer  money as  compensation  has then had to be pad  to the unfortunate  doctor.  However the quality of the person within the DoH who receives tye call from the hospital trust and gives advice  is  very variable  and some  are still naïve innocent idiots

This year also saw  your Secretary compete  more than 20 years as secretary of the  Group  and he feels  that it is time  for fresh blood to take over the running of the group.

The provisional arrangement, which will be confirmed  by the group   in a few days  time, is that  Dr Ray  Parsons should take over,  that Dr Pam Harper should  be minutes secretary.  DR Dennis Murphy  has resigned as  Chairman of the  group  but has  indicated that he will continue to serve and advise  any member of the group  who needs his professional advice or services.  The decision about  a future Chairman   will be made  at the group’s next meeting

Information about the group  and particularly  its advice and objectives  are still being continue-ingly  sought.  To that end  the  general advice   has been posted on the Society’s web site  Your Secretary  is to address  the Society of Cardiothoracic  Surgeons  at an open all day  meeting, on suspensions,  to be held  at the RSM  in two days  time.  His talk will subsequently offered to be posted  on the  Society’s Web site

One interesting by-product  of the research involved  for that talk  is  the discovery that cardiac  surgeons  are the most  likely   of all doctors to be suspended  Their numbers are comparatively few, about 200, but  over the years at least  ten have been suspended with at least half of them dismissed.  This perhaps is  something  that should be  passed over to the Society of  Cardiothoracic  Surgeons  to deal with and advise their trainees  accordingly.

To end my report on a personal note   I have enjoyed my time  as Secretary of the Suspended Doctors  Group, that in that period I feel that I have been able to help doctors  that is persons  in severe distress, that I doing  so I have  fulfilled  my personal objective of being useful and helping others in trouble  and  have  made a difference to  the Community of all doctors.   I would like to thank members of  this Committee  who in the past have helped  extensively in advising  and treating  distressed  doctors made ill by their treatment at the hands of  administrators  and whose advice and support for all my actions  has been unswerving.