General Medical Council February 2009
Three journalists asked me about the GMC today. Today though was a really amusing day full of interesting things. I ought to take the GMC seriously as they are such serious people. It is really hard though. The more I find out about them, the more I feel like writing a great deal of parody about this bizarre organisation. It is so difficult to describe the fact that the GMC is an absurd organisation unfit to regulate the medical profession in the UK.
One of the leading journalists told me " The GMC is a bizarre organisation". Errrm yep.
Neil Marshall is rather a fascinating little man. He works for the GMC. Actually, he is alright in comparison to the rest of his associates. He tries to be fair but has to grit his teeth and probably seeth with anger while he backs down a few times. He told me today that the GMC don't do CRB checks on doctors . Was it just me who found this fact amusing? Even the local nursing home can carry out CRB checks but the GMC can't. I don't think Neil realised how absurd that sentence sounded. Perhaps its all those meetings in the Goldfish bowl.
His exact words were " We do not have the power or capacity to conduct Criminal Records Bureau checks on doctors.". He then goes onto say "There is a Home Office Circular which requires Police forces to inform us of any conviction of a doctor in the UK". And what if the police forget or simply omit this issue. What if there are a series of minor offences that the GMC aren't informed about. The doctor simply carries on without problems. What if the doctor was a serial killer and the police forgot to inform the GMC that he was under investigation. We can see it happening.
So if there is a person who is not registered with the GMC, develops a criminal convinction and then applies for registration and does not declare said conviction. - The GMC would never know about this conviction at all. They would also never check on this. Essentially, we have a set of new doctors registering from abroad or here whom the GMC have not CRB checked.
How interesting?! Is the GMC doing their job or are they simply a bunch of chickens
I call them chickens for many reasons today. This is probably because today has been one of the most entertaining ones I have had in terms of observing GMC Towers.
One of the leading journalists told me " The GMC is a bizarre organisation". Errrm yep.
Neil Marshall is rather a fascinating little man. He works for the GMC. Actually, he is alright in comparison to the rest of his associates. He tries to be fair but has to grit his teeth and probably seeth with anger while he backs down a few times. He told me today that the GMC don't do CRB checks on doctors . Was it just me who found this fact amusing? Even the local nursing home can carry out CRB checks but the GMC can't. I don't think Neil realised how absurd that sentence sounded. Perhaps its all those meetings in the Goldfish bowl.
His exact words were " We do not have the power or capacity to conduct Criminal Records Bureau checks on doctors.". He then goes onto say "There is a Home Office Circular which requires Police forces to inform us of any conviction of a doctor in the UK". And what if the police forget or simply omit this issue. What if there are a series of minor offences that the GMC aren't informed about. The doctor simply carries on without problems. What if the doctor was a serial killer and the police forgot to inform the GMC that he was under investigation. We can see it happening.
So if there is a person who is not registered with the GMC, develops a criminal convinction and then applies for registration and does not declare said conviction. - The GMC would never know about this conviction at all. They would also never check on this. Essentially, we have a set of new doctors registering from abroad or here whom the GMC have not CRB checked.
How interesting?! Is the GMC doing their job or are they simply a bunch of chickens
I call them chickens for many reasons today. This is probably because today has been one of the most entertaining ones I have had in terms of observing GMC Towers.
2 comments:
Chickens? Yep, that's them - of the headless variety :-)
Yes - these GMC chickens are curious creatures - partly dinosaur and partly an egg factory, where nothing hatches. A rich metaphor for an intellectually bankrupt tower of corruption
Post a Comment