Bagels at Dawn

Firstly, I am just recovering from my Bicardi Breezer overkill. I omitted the tomato juice plus hot chili - burning at both ends combination my friends used to use at medical school. Some things cause necessary pain and gives a new meaning to the usual Italian phrase of "setting your arse on fire". Instead, the piece I am about to write about inspired me to get myself a bagel, smoked salmon and soft cheese.

Late last night, I was reading a very interesting story about the current state of war within the medical profession. The problem with doctors is that they can't help but gossip. Doctors spend more time gossiping like large wind bags than any other profession. The other difficulty with doctors is that they tend to be highly intelligent and with that comes this element of jealousy for others. Doctors don't really need freemasons, scientologists or evangelists to start mobbing their colleagues. Because they are good teamworkers, they can effectively network and destroy people. They also have this sense of arrogance that they are apparently better than the rest of the world. Not all doctors are like this, some can be decent human beings with hearts that work. My medical friends and I have often contemplated the wicked world of medicine. I don't think the public actually understand how wicked the medical world can be. I have found very few decent human beings in medicine. I think that was my disappointment when I qualified in medicine. To me, I had worked hard to be with a bunch of bastards 24/7 and apparently I had to work by their rules. Doctors come in different shapes and sizes. They are bound by the rules of the brotherhood of medicine. The rule is that you never raise your head above the parapet because if you do, its chopped off. There are a lot of chopped heads on the GMC's floor because the first mode of action of those who dislike another doctor is to report them to the GMC. It has been done to me by a group of doctors who posted on Doctors.net.uk. I spotted the similar kind of treatment in the article described below. This is typical of the way boys behave. I have this theory that doctors have always remained sheltered, never gone into the outside world to observe their place in it. It is because of this, they go into some bickering overdrive. They then think that its the most important debate in the entire world. They must be important because they are doctors afterall. In reality, no one gives a damn about these bickerings and fall outs.

Professor Michael Baum is a professor. This means he can say anything and people will believe him. Michael in in trouble. People have been throwing bagels at him and instead of catching them and throwing them back with extra powered unleavened bread, he has decided to tell the conference about his woes.

Professor Michael Baum told a packed session at the annual Limmud conference at Warwick University that colleagues — including Jews — in the medical profession had turned on him after he challenged the accusation made by some that the Israel Medical Association (IMA) was complicit in the torture of Palestinian prisoners.

His session was called “The academic boycott of Israel: are the Jews among the worst antisemites?”

Now, if I said - I am a whistleblower, the medical profession hate my views and had turned on me, the General Medical Council would say I was paranoid. Darn, of course I made that comment in 2000 and they said I was paranoid. But of course, Professor Baum isn't paranoid, he is just a professor and we must all feel sorry for him.

His tale continued

Professor Baum said the personal attacks culminated in a letter sent to everyone on the BMJ website — invoking the name of the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, who carried out hideous experiments on Jews during the Holocaust — which accused him of covering for Israeli doctors.

It also said he should be ashamed of himself and that the GMC should revoke his licence to practice medicine. “This was written by a Jew,” he said.

“That’s when the campaign to get me struck off started — the worst ignominy any doctor can suffer. They collected signatures and tried to accuse me of complicity with IMA practices. Any attempt to defend myself provoked more anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric.”

Anyhow, as the good Professor will know R v GMC Ex Parte Pal ensures that any criticism can amount to "misconduct" and be investigated by the General Medical Council. So, Professor Baum's flame war is now ending up on the GMC's table no doubt. If he wants to rely on Article 10 of the Human Rights Act 1998, he has problems because Article 10 does not apply to doctors [ as per Collins J]. It is said that the GMC can ignore human rights in order to commence an investigation. Anyhow, nice to know my case law is now shown to affect those in the upper echelons of power.

Having pissed the world off, the article stated

"The surgeon went to the Community Security Trust for advice because he was worried about his and his family’s safety. He admitted to his audience that he broke down in tears during a private meeting with Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor"

A grown man breaking down in tears just because some doctors have been mean to him. If we did that, we would be taken straight to the GMC loony bin, locked up, fed bagels by our Jewish GMC Chair Count Rubin and forced to repent. Whistleblowers are sinners you see.

I thought the above debate was about the torture of Palestinian prisoners. Is anyone writing about their tears?! or are they just quietly dying off while we distract ourselves by considering the feelings of Professor Baum. The good Prof should understand quite carefully that real men don't cry, they fight back. If he wasn't ready for the fall out, why write a controversial inflaming piece?

The BMJ and the Lancet have taken this all terribly seriously. The fact that other doctors get mobbed, destroyed, ruined, insulted, defamed, GMC referred in the same way isn't headline news. People are being executed in China but Professor Baum thinks his tears deserve attention.

We were wondering whether the good Professor wanted to go and see a counsellor based at GMC Towers who could talk through the issue in a sympathetic manner. Because clearly the good Prof is looking for tea and sympathy given his current predicament. Any body offering tea and sympathy in Israel or Palestine?

If we read this article - these are a bunch of men who intellectually debate crap. The world is falling apart, people are dying and they are pathetically whinging about their internal bickerings. One is even crying because some organisation decided to actually defend themselves. Some doctors remain in the playground, some become bullies, others become victims. Nothing ever changes because none of them ever grow up.

Declared Conflict of Interest - Avid Fan of Fiddler on the Roof, Continuously buy cakes from jewish bakeries. Always amazed by the length of jewish noses. Represented in the past by a jewish bagel eating barrister Robert Jay QC.