Ward 87: GMC's Desperate Housewife. Niall Dickson doing the Shake and Vac ......

Tuesday, 9 February 2010

GMC's Desperate Housewife. Niall Dickson doing the Shake and Vac ......

Desperate Housewife - Niall Dickson.
Doing the Shake and Vac and Putting the Freshness Back into the GMC

As everyone may have noticed, Niall Dickson appeared on Channel 4 or 5 last week. Reports from the peasants in the United Kingdom suggest that the great man of the General Medical Council was in a bad state and had become a desperate man. He appeared frazzled and not his usual cool self. Long gone are the cushy days of the past on the comfy chairs of the Kings Fund. Drinking tea with old Common Purpose Guru Cyril Chantler is probably no longer on the agenda. Dicko as he is affectionately known by King No of Badmedicine.net did not appear to be in control when he was interviewed recently. Apparently, everyone was surprised at this demeanor. It cannot be easy being surrounded by experienced Lizards. Everywhere he goes, there must be a skeleton falling out of some closet after all there are just so many. Dicko may require more than Glade to achieve his objective because everyone who visits this dirtbag regulatory body complains of the stench of dead bodies.

He recently hilariously exclaimed

"The current situation is profoundly unsatisfactory," said Niall Dickson, chief executive of the GMC.
"We are not able to give the level of assurance we want because of the present legal framework.
"Our position is clear. In order to ensure patient safety, when doctors first register with us, we need to be able to test their English language proficiency and we need to be able to test their clinical knowledge and skills."

You mean over the last 100 years since the GMC's existence, they have been hiring unsafe doctors and if so is the GMC responsible for the potential high death rate?

Overall, Niall's first month at the General Medical Council has been filled with disaster. As he is currently bald, the stress levels can only be measured by the level of shine on his head not the RHDR [ Rapid Hair Drop Out Rate]. Well, what can we expect of an ex journalist. This is what the GMC says about the bald man at the helm. Isn't it lovely to have a Ex BBC Health Journalist as top dog.

Niall Dickson joined the General Medical Council as Chief Executive and Registrar in January 2010.
He began his career in teaching before taking up posts in national voluntary organisations involved with older people. He was Editor of Therapy Weekly for the allied health professions and then of Nursing Times.

He moved to the BBC in 1988 as Health Correspondent, became Chief Social Affairs Correspondent and then, in 1995, Social Affairs Editor, focussing mainly on Radio 4's Today programme and the Ten O'clock News on BBC 1.

Niall is a member of the Cabinet Office Honours Committee (Health) and the Department of Health's End of Life Care Implementation Advisory Board. In 2008, he chaired a cross-party commission on accountability in health for the Local Government Association (LGA).
He is a trustee of the Leeds Castle Foundation. His honorary awards include being a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and as Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners.

NB Finally, I would like to thank the General Medical Council for their Royal Presence on the blog for the past few days. Please will the designated visitor learn to spell before reading this blog :)

1 comments:

Doctor Bloggs said...: yes - I am getting a little bit worried about Niall, he doesn't seem to look as well as he did this time last year. Do you think he has a case of GMCitis and ought to try bedrest?; 9 February 2010 at 23:49

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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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Tuesday, 9 February 2010

GMC's Desperate Housewife. Niall Dickson doing the Shake and Vac ......

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