The Barton case may well come to be remembered as the one in which the General Medical Council lit the fuse of its own destruction. But the fuse that has been lit is not the one that appears to have been lit.
Unlike the Gosport relatives of Barton’s victims, and the multitude of commentators on the web, and in the press, Dr No does not think that GMC stands for ‘Gross Medical Cover-up’. He does not think this is a simple case of a profession looking after its own.
Sure, there are doctors involved. But this is not about doctors protecting doctors. It is something infinitely more troubling. It is The Establishment looking after The Establishment.
Let us consider some of the known facts of the case:
1. The General Medical Council is not a professionally elected body, but a Government appointed quango. Council members are appointed by – naturally – another quango – The Appointments Commission, which is itself accountable to the Department of Health.
2. The Council’s Chief Pongo, Niall Dickson, is an non-medical Establishment man. Before joining the GMC, he was Chief Pongo at the King’s Fund, a thinly disguised pro-market government controlled think-tank. He is also intertwingled with Tony Blair’s ‘Third Way’.
3. The Council now has as many lay members as medical members (twelve of each). The medical members are Establishment members who happen to be doctors.
4. The Fitness to Practice Panel that tried Barton was chaired by a non-medical man Andrew Reid – a lawyer and a JP.
5. The GMC has shown and continues to show great zeal in pulling the wings off non-Establishment doctors. A contemporary list can be found here.
6. Barton, on the other hand, is very ‘Establishment’. Oxford University, and sister to a (now ex-) GMC Grandee.
7. UK medical bloggers – who tend to be non-Establishment doctors who have written about Barton appear to be uniformly of the view that she should have been struck off.
And finally – a bit of conjecture. Barton’s misdemeanours – those which were found to be serious professional misconduct – all relate to a pattern of opiate and sedative use that is now known as the Liverpool Care Pathway. Today’s caring sharing NHS Establishment is rather keen on the LCP, as a way of ensuring the best end-of-life care. Other, non-Establishment folk sometimes wonder if the LCP isn’t so much about ensuring good end-of-life care, as providing a convenient ‘Third Way’ to shift expensive bed-blocking Biddies and Gilberts…and erasing Barton would send out an anti-opiate and sedative message that might compromise the usefulness of the LCP…
No Sir, Barton isn’t about doctors closing ranks to protect doctors. This isn’t a failure of professional self-regulation. An FTP panel chaired by a non-doctor failed to strike her off. This is The Establishment closing ranks to protect The Establishment. We would do well to bear that in mind over the months ahead, lest we take our eye off the ball, and let that smouldering fuse of hope be allowed to go out.
Tomsanguish was present on the final day of deliberations over the case of Dr. Ship….oops Barton!
At one point tomsanguish thought the ‘strike off’ was imminent as Mr. Reid read out the misconduct list. BUT then came a phrase that tomsanguish had heard before in another long and drawn out case – Robbie Powell:
“Passage of Time”. It had been 10 years since the last victim died at GWMH and Dr. Barton was now proved to have towed the line and was a well respected member of the community!
So there you have it, if any of you fancy bumping of your husband or wife, just keep your head down for about 10 years and there will be no punishment! Or would the Establishment come down on YOU like a ton of bricks?
TomsAnguish – it happened ages ago so we’ll let you off – is indeed typical GMC lunacy. The passage of time might mitigate parking fines, but Barton was causing death by reckless prescribing.
The GMC are also using the a long time has elapsed argument to resist investigating a Doctor Khoosal who is alleged to have carried out a sexual assault on Kate Middleton in 1982. Sure it is a long time ago – but sexual assault – like causing death – is a serious allegation. Refusing to strike off Barton/investigate Khoosal sends out all the wrong messages – in effect, as you say, it’s OK to do these things, as long as you don’t get discovered at the time.
In Khoosal’s case, the GMC added an eye-watering twist by claiming that an allegation of sexual assault in the context of a clinical examination lessens its gravity. What planet are these people on?
GMC – Get away with Murder Corporation or get away with anything else!
Like other areas of life the UK the ‘Bad Guys’ can get away with anything AND get a pat on the back for it, whilst the ‘Good Guys’ – NHS Whistleblowers – get suspended or struck off!
Bad behaviour accepted, good behaviour rejected.
The Grand Muppett Crackpots of the General Medical Council are symptomatic of a deep sickness in Britain. It is hard to know where to start…And where to stop….
The doctor who saved my life twice, Dr Russell Reid was investigated, court-martialled and found guilty of “serious professional misconduct” at the GMC for the horrific offence of prescribing oestrogen to Paul/ Paula Rowe in January 1988.
When used as a Witness against Reid in 2007 Rowe had already been the subject of various stories such as this one in The Grauniad:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2004/aug/12/health.mentalhealth
David Batty, an “investigative journalist” had carried out an extensive pre-trial campaign in The Grauniad using using Rowe as a case study. Reid attracted a blog with over 450 messages of support set up by so-called a “transperson”:
http://russellreid.blogspot.com/
I felt extremely sorry for Rowe when the stories came out in 2004. I met this person in January 1987 at a party in Dracena Avenue, Falmouth. Rowe was wearing large red little girls party shoes and a bushy black beard. I was wearing a white Indian skirt of the hippy chick variety. I have known I am female from the age of seven and have always worn girls/womens clothes.
Rowe’s first words to me were, “I like what you are doing, I do a bit of it myself”. I ran away and hid behind my friends and said, “help, I am being chased by a pervert!”
I have never considered myself to be “doing” anything other than trying to resolve a medical problem and get on with my life and those first words immediately identified Rowe as somebody quite different.
In those days, it was recognised that there are men who like to dress up in ladies panties and slap the salami. Or dress up as a woman for other reasons – as a “hobby”. It is quite common and I usually advise them to get on with it – and be sensitive to their wives who often find it disturbing. The Beaumont Society have a support group for the wives. Those ar transpersons- not women.
A good example of a transvestite is Michael Haslam, the psychiatist who with his colleague William Kerr was responsible for raping and sexually assaulting scores of women in North Yorkshire. In prison, Haslam wrote about going to the Beaumont society and calling himself “Victoria”. When not raping patients Haslam was also dealing with “gender patients” who, I am reliably informed, he gave a “hard time”.
It became increasingly clear during Reid’s trial in 2007 that Rowe was lying about the circumstances when he/she was being treated by Reid. I therefore went up to the GMC and offered to be a witness. One of Rowes arguments was that Reid was “too nice” and that she was a liar.
John Kingston QC informed me that Rowe is legally recognised as female and that I should therefore call “her”. Reid informed me over lunch that she has been earning a living selling “sex change regret” stories such as the above because she doesn’t “pass” very well. Both of them lacked insight into the broader picture of mums of children like me seeing Rowe in the media; who would want that for their child?
Reid could be pretty irresponsible and, although I am deeply grateful for him saving my life after a very bloody second suicide attempt after drinking the best part of a bottle of Gordons on December 23rd 1987, he mis-diagnosed me as “gender dysphoric”.
Ironically, I was correctly identified as an “early transsexual” by Professor Keith Hawton, now director of adolescent suicide research at Oxford in 1982 when I was at Radley College before being bullied and indecently assaulted into my first suicide attempt by Khoosal – who I am reliably informed is a homosexualist but married to give hime superficial respectability.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/jan/28/health.socialcare
I believe that he also failed to recognise Rowe’s fundamental problem which was a need to be the centre of attention. The GMC verdict is unconclusive – it states in the case of several of Reid’s patients that they did not “appear” to have been harmed by treatment because they remained in the “female role”:
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2007/05/25/reid.PDF
In the GMC, in 2007, I listened to a few minutes of drivel about the “female role” and left. Someone suggested a few years ago that I am “just like Lara Croft”. I watched Tomb raider and was extremely pleased. That’s my idea of the “female role”! I have recently emailed Reid to explain that I had resolved the matter of my sexual identity by the age of seven.
I was equally sure that I was a sailor – and the third book I read was “Swallows and Amazons”. Nancy Blackett, ruthless Amazon pirate, was my first role model. I have the photos of me sailing Amazon, a Mirror dinghy, in 1976. I did not take into consideration that pirates tend to be hanged in chains at Execution dock! That’s what psychiatrists have done for me. DN has seen the notes. I was completely sane when Khoosal assaulted me.
The GMC failed to give me the chance to explain that Rowe got most of her information on “gender” from an episode of Blackadder called “Bells” in which Kate goes to London disguised as a boy called Bob and Blackadder falls in love with her. Unfortunately, it is not on utube anymore but..
There is a scene in it in which Blackadder consults the doctor about his attraction to “Bob”. The doctor remarks, “you are nothing more than a screaming bender with no right to live on God’s clean earth than a weasel!” He recommends a course of leeches.
The attitude at Charing Cross is not advanced. There is a petition of 1000 signatures complaining about the abuse that goes on there on the net. Horrific abuse of a very vulnerable patient by Richard Green was exposed at Reid’s courtmartial. Green is quoted on the website of the North American Man/Boy love association saaying that the sexual abuse of little boys by men is not always harmful. Nobody I have spoken to agrees.
Khoosal is a pervert and GMC clinical examiner. He has a reputation. I felt a moral obligation to expose him as I am an Old Dragon and because I knew I could prove it. I don’t want him hanged. That would be too nice. I want to torture him until he commits suicide. That is what he did to me when I was at Radley College – I am keeping the Old Radleians Society informed about Bulstrode who has been featured on the cover of the last old Radleian….
Education is a privilege and with that privilege comes responsibility. My primary complaint about Khoosal is NOT sexaul assault but goes to the heart of medical professionalism according to the GMC.
http://www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/good_medical_practice/probity_honest_trustworthy.asp
As I explained to James Dingemans QC who has been giving me friendly support, I went to the authorities on the basis that we should all have the right to go the doctor and expect they will be trustworthy and honest. All I need now is another solictor who is prepared to actually look at the evidence…I intend to destroy the evil sociopath Khoosal using every means at my disposal
I am now on my third GMC administrator Ceri Floyd and they are waiting for further info…