Ward 87: Dame Carol Black. Cream Cakes PRN

Sunday, 24 August 2008

Dame Carol Black. Cream Cakes PRN

Carol Black at the
General Medical Council Committee Meeting

Dr Rant quite rightly has covered the Black files again.

Professor Dame Carol Black DBE MD FRCP MACP FMedSci
Organisation	Position
Health Honours Committee	Chair 2005-
General Medical Council	2006-
NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement	Non-Executive Director, 2006-
JCC (Joint Consultants Committee)	Vice Chairman, 2006-
NHS National Stakeholder Forum	2006-
General Council of the King's Fund	Member, 2004-
UK Systemic Sclerosis Study Group	President, 1980-
The Scleroderma Society	President, 2006-
Pulmonary Hypertension Clinicians Group	Member, 2002-
Medical Advisory Board, United Scleroderma Foundation, USA	Member 1995-
Raynaud's and Scleroderma Association Trust	President, 2006-
Scleroderma Federation Medical and Scientific Advisory Board	Member, 1995-
Scientific Advisory Group, German Network for Systemic Scleroderma	Member, 2004-
BackCare	Vice Patron, 2006-
BAMM Medical Leaders Professional Council	Member, 2006-
Scientific Leadership Advisory Board, Merck & Co	Member, 2006-
International Scientific Advisory Board, Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd	Consultant, 2005-
The Association of Physicians	Member
British Society of Rheumatology	Member
Association of Clinical Professors of Medicine	Member
Royal Society of Medicine	Member
British Medical Association	Member
British Society for Immunology	Member
British Connective Tissue Society	Member
American College of Rheumatology	Member
European Society for Microcirculation	Member
United Kingdom Systemic Sclerosis Study Group	Founder member
Italian Society of Rheumatology	Honorary member
Turkish Society of Rheumatology	Honorary member
British Health Professionals in Rheumatology	Member
Royal College of Physicians College Club	Member
Forty Two Club	Member
Medical Pilgrims	Member
Department of Work and Pensions	National Director for Health and Work, 2006-
Nuffield Trust	Chair, 2006-
Academy of Medical Royal Colleges	Chair, 2006-
Chief Medical Officer’s Advisory Council of GSK	Member, 2006-
Foulkes Foundation Advisory Group	Member, 2006-
ABPI Advisory Council	Member, 2007-
National Stakeholder Forum	Member, 2007-
National Patient Safety Forum	Member, 2007-
Health England a National Reference Group for Health and Well-being	Member, 2007-
Guy’s & St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust External Scientific Advisory Board	Member, 2007-
Chief Medical Officer’s Medical Revalidation and Education Working Group	Member, 2007-
NHS London Provider Agency	Adviser, 2007-
University of Bristol	Convocation Representative to Court, 2007-

Here is the GMC's Code of Conduct that Carol should abide by.

"To avoid bias on grounds of sex, race, disability, lifestyle, culture, beliefs, colour, gender, sexuality or age."

During that time, she has part of the council allowed this to happen. Also during this time, she has sat around at committee meetings clearly eating cakes and accepting the violation of human rights that has taken place. As a GMC committee member she is also a Trustee. As a Trustee she is responsible for ensuring that doctors subscription fees are spent wisely.

Here she is caring about frontline staff.

I do though like this Wikipaedia entry outling the history of her antics with the used tea bags of the medical profession.

While stuffing up the MMC doctors, she said

"These aspirations encompass the creation of the right conditions in which doctors can deliver high quality medicine to the benefit of their patients and have a satisfying career with the infrastructural and educational facilities to support all this. The tasks ahead will not be easy. Challenges for the College include the future of postgraduate medical education and the need to form better relationships with the patients and the public"

The Society of Occupational Medicine publishes this. Perhaps Elizabeth Miller could confirm whether she was ever asked to contribute to this report? When DSL was in danger of closing, did Dame Carol Black offer her support? My question is this, she seems to care so much for the working population, does she care for sick doctors?

This Rate Your MD assessment is amusing. This is a talk given by Carol Black where she talks about "accountability" :)

More from Dame Carol

"“Giving up clinical practice to devote more time to medical management and national politics has been my greatest personal challenge. At times I was doubtful about my abilities. Was I strong enough for such a leadership role? I knew that leadership was not about being popular and you are not always able to do what everyone wants. With hindsight I wish I had been braver. I also wish someone could have talked me through it, even talked me through my mistakes. In the future I would like to see more women filling the top posts in medicine. Women are certainly capable enough to take on these major roles, but they need energy, desire, and support to achieve this"

All the BMJ articles on Carol Black is here.

So come on Dame Carol - deal with the issues related to Ward 87, GMC and me. Let us see what your leadership skills are made of. Lets see if Dame Carol can stand by her big words in the talk she gave about " professionalism and accountability". Carol likes to quote Ian Kennedy barrister at the Bristol Inquiry, Ian likes to quote Carol in this Learning From Bristol document. What is true of both of them is that they do not consider or pay attention the reality of whistleblowing. Actually, neither do either of them care. Dame Carol of course won't assist because I am a whistleblower and she is Dame Carol. That's why it gets dealt with by the judges. The judges deal with it, the working doctors pay the GMC's legal fees for defending the GMC's position [against me] and Dame Carol [like each committee member] sits on her butt eating cake. That is justice at the GMC for you.

GMC Committee Table. Playing Poker with Doctor's Lives

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: Dame Carol Black seems to have taken on rather a lot in 2007. Up until 2006 she seems to have led a quiet life at which point she got involved writing a long report. At that point her activities seem to have mushroomed.

This may throw doubt on the stability of her affect and raise the question of bipolarity. As a psychiatrist I would be concerned if one of my patients suddenly started to participate in a large number of activities.

At this stage, I would just observe but of course be ready to move in with a community health team if she seemed to have lost her grasp of reality; 24 August 2008 at 23:13
Dr Liz Miller said...: I have met Carol Black, she was not wildly impressed with my opinions ;-)
If she has her way Occupational Health will be as tightly regulated as the rest of the medical profession along the sausage machine BUPA model.

For those unfamiliar with the BUPA OH model - it involves structured, half hourly appointments, including the report and standard phrases such as "no contraindication to administrative action" = no reason you can't sack 'em.

This model helps avid HR vulture tick the box of dismissal. It does not help the manager resolve the workplace dilemma of "how can I help my employees work as a team??"

Short term sickness absence is a stronger indicator of management ability rather than the health of the employees - happy, clappy employees don't get ill.

About the OH report, I have never seen a printed document that describes in such detail exactly what everyone "should do", as opposed to "can do" and what "is helpful". And no, no one asked my opinion and no, they never do, and she isn't prepared to help the Doctors Support Line; 24 August 2008 at 23:29

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About The Author

There is a lot of things most people can say about me but in reality I am NHS Whistleblower. In 1998, I followed the guidance set out in Good Medical Practice[GMC] and raised concerns about substandard care on Ward 87 North Staffordshire NHS Trust. I also raised concerns about the large number of Midlands Hospitals covered by West Midlands NHS Executive in 1999. Following the recordings of the HSMR scores, only Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust spiked their figures. This was due to the inordinately high death rates. These deaths could have been prevented had the government acted in 1999. There are many other hospitals with equally high death rates but 1000s have not raised the HSMR scores. The Mid Staffordshire Inquiry shows poor standards that are similar to many hospitals in the Midlands [particularly Distinct General Hospitals]. They were also the identical to the concerns raised by me in 1999, many years before.

In 2010 the CQC finally admitted that North Staffordshire had "significantly high mortality" in the years I raised concerns.

This blog follows my adventures as a whistleblower. It was written between 2008-2010. It seeks to present what the media have never done. I also aim to discuss a number of medical issues important in the NHS today. A short account of my experiences is presented here.

Essentially, I raised concerns in 1998, locally then to all the authorities, the GMC, Department of Health and Trust attempted to say there was no substance to my concerns. In 2005, I discovered that all authorities had concealed the 1998 and 2001 internal reports that verified my concerns. This is a brief step by step summary of the events related to Ward 87.

Between 2000-2002, the General Medical Council conducted a "discreet inquiry" into my Fitness to Practice. I was never told of this investigation until I discovered quite by accident following a subject access request under the Data Protection Act 1998. The GMC were subjected to litigation by me due to the illegal investigation and repeated leaks of prejudicial information to potential employers. They were beaten in court following the first litigation of its kind. The GMC settled the case in favour of me. During litigation, the GMC subjected me quite severe harassment by revolving door vexatious complaints - 2 in total. I was cleared of all of them. I was never subjected to any Fitness to Practise hearings. All complaints were thrown out at case examiner's stage despite the GMC's malevolent intentions.

The GMC subsequently erased me from the Register for non payment of subscription fees. It should be emphasized that I was never sanctioned or struck off has speculated by some bloggers. In total, I have been subjected to 4 years of complaints that had no relation to my clinical work. This has had catastrophic consequences to my work as a doctor and eventually caused the assassination of my references in 2007.

This led to the test case R v General Medical Council Ex Parte Pal with the intention of defining the definition of potential misconduct and preventing vexatious complaints against doctors. The complaints were made by Penny Mellor and her associate Fiona Wollard [ niece of Professor Sir Charles George].

While permission was granted by a judge with Employment Law experience, the final hearing was lost courtesy of Justice Sir Andrew Collins who made various statements. One was that the GMC was free to rule differently on two separate cases with exactly the same facts and the other was to widen the analysis of misconduct to include conduct outside the profession. Justice Sir Andrew Collins has sat on numerous cases related to the GMC. He has often failed to declare that his brother Dr Mark Collins was once prosecuted by the GMC for alliances in Clapham Common. Details of this can be read here.

The two diametrically opposite analysis of misconduct was also discovered following the GMC's submission to R v General Medical Council Ex Parte Remedy UK. Essentially, one analysis appears to be used for some foreign doctors and a different more lenient definition is used for establishment doctors such as Liam Donaldson. The GMC were essentially caught red handed touting two different analysis of misconduct in two cases. This discrepancy is currently being investigated by both the CHRE and the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The defenses to all these cases have taken up 52 files. By comparison, the GMC refused to investigate the doctors on Ward 87 despite the fact that their conduct was directly related to clinical work. They continue to work in various positions in the UK. No one was held accountable despite 2 reports verifying my concerns. Moreover, the Health Commission refused to conduct a broader data study in relation to the Ward 87. The GMC and Ombudsman refused to inform the patients on the Ward of the 1998 and 2001 Reports. The Sentinel newspapers refused to feature a legitimate advert.

In 2009, after discussion with Dr Phil Hammond, he wrote an excellent piece in Private Eye. While the media have provided little or no support for these issues, I am indebted to my fellow bloggers - Dr Rant, The Jobbing Doctor, Dr John Crippen and Witchdoctor. This blog exists to protect other doctors who I hope will never tread the path of whistleblowing. It is a path paved with injustice. It also serves to show the public that they cannot legitimately expect doctors to raise concerns in such a dangerous terrain. This indeed places patient safety in great jeopardy.

This blog ended in February 2010 as it was unlikely that I would ever return to medicine. I have also decided to end this particular saga here. I hope this blog will educate, entertain and remind the public that whistleblowing is a dangerous escapade and no junior doctor has treaded the same path as I have for a reason. The terrain is unsafe and always has been. I would say that I have been relatively unsupported in my journey through whistleblowing but singlehandedly I have been able to undercover evidence and establish some very important issues regarding the dangers of whistleblowing. I have ceased to respond to the media but I am always very happy to discuss matters with the public.

Ward 87

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Sunday, 24 August 2008

Dame Carol Black. Cream Cakes PRN

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