Miller Hangs Out at the RSM's Wall of Honour

UK's Largest Intake of Chocolate During a Court Case. 

Elizabeth Miller is back in the world of blogging. Hurrah! People will remember her as the biggest fan [not] of Sir Graham Catto Ex El Presidente of the GMC. Miller has a thing for the receding hairline. She comes well prepared with large amounts of good polish stored under her stairs. Given the rate of hair fall endemic at the GMC, Miller has decided on emergency measures.

Given the latest disappearances of many medical bloggers in cyberspace, Miller's blog is going to be welcomed with open arms. I love Miller's Blog.  Yes it's true, her exposures of the medical profession is masterful. Miller is credited with saving half the doctors in the UK from suicide singlehandedly. Yes, I have seen it myself. Those who have seen her at work should nominate Miller for a OBE/DBE. No doubt the small bald man of Aberdeenshire will support this. Miller's specialty of dragging doctors away from Beachy head is something no one else has managed to compete with.

Her first post today is rather curious. Miller has clearly been hanging out too much in the rebel den of medicine. To all of us this den is known as the Royal Society of Medicine. Clearly bored with the latest cosmetic diatribe given by Count Rubin of the GMC, Miller nipped out with her mobile phone to photograph a plaque on the Royal Society of Medicine's Wall of Honour. Apparently, my name is there. I am of course a little worried that the vast majority of doctors around me appear to be dead :). Am I therefore supposed to be dead?

I am not sure why my name is there bar the fact that the Royal Society must have made some kind of a catastrophic  error. Amazingly, unlike the rest of the world who spells my name as Patel or Powell, the Royal Society of Medicine got it right. I used to be a member of the Royal Society until the GMC constructively dismissed me in 2007.

The best thing about the Royal Society are the toilets. You can always tell a place by the quality of the toilets. Yes, I have spent many months during my finals on the Royal toilets reading my Lecture notes in silence. Amazing what interesting gossip you can hear in the Ladies. I am yet to sit in the  golden GMC toilets. In the past, I was told that even more intriguing gossip sessions occur there.

The plaque seen by Elizabeth Miller is no doubt the honour to all those who have completed the UK's chocolate supplies in record time. I am of course thankful for this honour and would like to thank Thorntons who provided me with large amounts of supplies on a daily basis during the cases against the GMC. Here is the plaque and it is chocolate coloured. Yee haa.

Of course, on a serious note Miller's tribute to me is extremely nice. That is because Miller is extremely nice. Indeed, she is one of the nicest doctors in the UK. I am also proud to call her my friend. She deserves [more than anyone] to be on the Wall of Honour. I hope those she has supported and saved will pitch together and arrange for her name to be up there as well. I am feeling a little uncomfortable surrounded by dead doctors on a plaque at the RSM.

I am now off to email Sir Graham Catto who haunts the halls of the Royal Society to find out whether the chocolate quantity quoted was correct :). I am sure I have consumed more than all the dead doctors on the plaque.

Anyhow, this is what Catto wrote to me after the above. We have to admit, GC has a sense of humour.

Dear Dr Pal

Good to hear from you.  It's a Wall of Honour (as opposed to a Wall of Death) and indicates, I think, that someone or some group has given the RSM funds to have your name on the wall.   It was / is a fund-raising wheeze for the RSM - and no before you ask the GMC did not pay for my name ...

We differ, though, on the new GMC.  It is a great tribute, I think, that the corporate image, lacking only a moustache, has continued in my absence. Not enough is heard in support of the small & bald.

Graeme

Related Links 

Wall of Honour - Royal Society of Medicine. 

[ A humble thanks to whoever donated money to have me placed on there]. Lets just hope he was tall, dark, handsome and utterly dashing :).He or she should remember that I am not one for honours or accolades. Nevertheless, I am astonished, surprised and completely humbled by the fact that someone[ or some people] would have thought about someone as irrelevant as me.Thankyou again.

Sunflowers

One of the main problems with whistleblowing is a growing obsession for some kind of justice. Justice is a word invented by those who have ideas about making the world a perfect place. When you step on the yellow brick road to whistleblowing, there isn't a Wizard of Oz at the end of it who solves all your problems. Part of survival is to take yourself off the yellow brick road temporarily to develop your patience and to rediscover life. Whistleblowing is often much like time standing still. Walking off the yellow brick road for a short time is often about restarting time.

To develop my patience, I normally migrate to the garden. This year, I have decided to patiently grow sunflowers. Gardening teaches many of us to tend to our plants to develop the art of patience for many things. For me, it is part of what Steve Bolsin calls "Whistleblower Rehabilitation". A lot of patience is required after you whistleblow, waiting for paperwork, waiting for answers, waiting for responses and finally waiting for justice. Plants teach us that without attention to detail, there isn't progress.

I have been interested in vegetation since I was a hobbit. Unlike many people in the UK, I was brought up in deepest darkest Africa. Every Friday, as part of our school curriculum, we would be sent to dig the fields to plant maize and sunflowers all day. I did this with the local convicts.  We took our hoes and prepared the soil from dawn to dusk. We sang the Zambian ballads, worked side by side with criminals and learned about respecting one another no matter what our past.

During those times as a child, I often wondered why I had to do this. My father persistently told the world that I wasn't going to be like every other asian child, pampered. I was going to learn about hard work and patience. So he was into equality. I was reluctant at first as I didn't understand why I had to face the blisters on my feet, the sun on my head and the sweat pouring down my face. 

Over time, I managed to last all day without water as well. I learned to work hard, I learned about friendship. During the journey back home we should sing African songs.  We had roasted casava, mangoes and fried caterpillars. Anything tasted nice when hunger took over your mind. My father had insisted, I would have no lunch box and that I had to survive on my own. I was 9 years old at the time and these lessons stayed with me.

After each journey, the harvest season was the most beautiful. There were fields and fields of yellow and green and we had done it all by ourselves. There was a sense of achievement. It was something we had created. So in those years, I learned many things. I learned about survival and I learned about patience. 

Gardening is less taxing these days. I don't have to carry the water from the lakes on my back as I had to when I was 9. We have hosepipes! Nevertheless, growing sunflowers reminds me of the lessons taught in the past - survival is all about taking one day at a time. With every day, there is progress no matter how small.After many days, there is an achievement - no matter how small.

My sunflowers are going to be wonderful this year. With my bed of lettuce leaves, jalpeno peppers, legions of swirling bean trees, flowering tomato trees, and bursts of multicoloured roses, the sunflowers will be the most beautiful flowers in this whistleblower's garden.When they are tall, strong and beautiful, I will have passed my test of patience for this year.

Anyhow, for those who like William Blake, this is a beautiful little poem for a summers day.

Ah! Sunflower

Ah! sunflower, weary of time,

Who countest the steps of the sun,

Seeking after that sweet golden clime

Where the traveller’s journey is done;

Where the youth pined away with desire,

And the pale virgin shrouded in snow,

Arise from their graves and aspire;

Where my sunflower wishes to go.

A

Of course, I dislike my lawyers

R v GMC Ex Parte Remedy UK [ referred to as Dr Powell] 

R v GMC Ex Parte Pal Appeal   [ referred to as Dr Patel] 

Can the judiciary get anything right anymore?

When I was a little girl, if someone told me that I would grow up to frequent the Courts of England just to clear my name, I wouldn't have believed them. Many people ask me why I dislike lawyers. It is quite simple. I find their personalities tiresome and their demeanor arrogant. I always think that I would have been far happier without meeting a single lawyer. They are mostly disgraceful human beings. I speak of course solely of my experiences with the legal profession. I am sure there are some rare lawyers out there who do a good job.  While crowing away on how doctors should correct or mend their ways, the legal profession is unable to do any such thing. No lawyer I know has ever had the decency to admit that they were wrong.

Of course, I no longer associate with many lawyers these days. I often think about my time as a teenager. We were all encouraged to work hard so we could progress in life. So I did and I progressed to find intellectual corruption in the highest professions. There is more integrity in working in ASDA or Tesco as a check out girl. Sadly, apparently I am too overqualified for jobs of integrity. This is the disadvantage of educating yourself to the highest degree. You can never return to the wonderful simplicity of being a teenager and being bright eyed about the world around you. Instead, you have to be tied down to listening to the medico legal profession guffaw about how wonderful their peacock feathers are. Afterall, their lives and times are about comparing their peacock feathers. I doubt they do anything constructive for the welfare of the world.

Hey there, Are you Alive?

The GMC need not call on Ghostbusters Today.

The electromagnetic field provided ex medical ghosts

 would have destroyed all their hard drives and put them out of business.

It's now nearly day 4 since disaster struck and my friend took an overdose. Luckily, he is back in action and today he told me he had things to do and couldn't be on the phone for long. Yee, Haa, this guy is back in action. OK, so he is getting fed up of my phonecalls every 8 hours and texts to see if he is still in the land of the living. Yes, I need to check. Today's conversation was " Hi, Are you Alive". Answer "Yes". I then replied " OK then, call me over the weekend" and put the phone down. So, now these exchanges are becoming amusing. Even he finds them amusing. No doubt, I shall be ringing him up with my usual skewed sense of humour and will explain to him that dying isn't cheap. .

In the hey day of medical school, I used to work at a funeral company doing invoices and communicating with funeral parlors. It was probably the best job I ever did. Nevertheless, funerals are damned expensive. Extra large coffins are even more expensive. Believe me, I had never seen so many zeros in all my life. This is the reason dying while fat is so uncool. Too many pallbearers to pay etc etc.

For that reason, the frugal option is to stay alive. I shall impress this upon my friend over the next few weeks.  He tries to be frugal but sadly retail therapy courtesy of the GMC sets in and personally I think any therapy is better than opting to meet the maker. There is no point at all making funeral companies richer when that money can be spent on Druckers cakes instead. This is my logic anyway.

So life is peachy, my friend is busy. I can now stop worrying. Emergency over. Fab!

Happiness is a Druckers Cake.

This is a Druckers Cake. If any doctor has ever wondered about heaven, this is it. It is called the Charlotte Gateau.

This is a classic whistleblower accessory. I feel better about 10 minutes after wolfing down  a piece cake. I recommend it on a PRN basis for all doctors and members of the public.  If I could write this on a NHS patient drug chart, I would :).

Those who want to die should reconsider their decision . Instead of opting to jump off Beachy head, which is a messy messy business, you might as well order the above cake and enjoy!. Happiness is a Druckers cake and Druckers has not delivered to the afterlife yet. No franchise apparently.

Happy

The above is a cow. That's obvious to the world. I am quite partial to herds of cows although having tried to milk one some years ago, I found myself flat on my bottom having been kicked by it's hind leg. On the days,I am inordinately happy, I purchase Channel Island Milk. There is something about spoiling yourself after a stressful few days. For those who know me, I am one of those terribly irritating people who dislikes alcohol, coffee, tea and coke. I love milk. This is the reason my addictions do not centre around illicit substances or alcohol like most people in strife.

My addictions are milk and chocolate  - then there is Druckers cakes, Haagen Daaz icecream and pancakes but we don't mention those! It is no secret that food makes everyone happy. I am no exception. When I jousted with the GMC, I took up cooking. I find cooking is a incredible way of doing something normal and besides it reminded me of Chemistry. In the beginning, the kitchen looked like a nuclear bomb had hit it but in time things got better. These days, I can manage to cook dinner without setting fire to my hair which is always promising. Food and cooking is all about indulgence and spoiling yourself and we all have to do this once in a while.

My friend loves to cook. On most weeks, he sends me picture messages by mobile. It is normally of the latest dinner he has cooked. If he had succeeded in his attempt to end his life, there would have been so many things I would have missed. I would have missed gossiping and mocking our stuck up colleagues, I would have missed his low fat cake pictures, his mischievous manner and hatred for all things authoritarian. 

Today, I am so happy that my friend survived his overdose. I was just so relieved that he made it out of the hospital and back home.  Anyway, there was something about the sun, the roses and the colours. Everything was bright and vibrant. I love days like this and I am ecstatic that he decided to live. Of course, I was on the phone to him telling him off repeatedly.

The horrible feeling of devastation and helplessness has finally disappeared from me after hours of  anxiety over whether he would live or die. After the loss of Beau Eckland, I would have been totally devastated if another one of my friends disappeared. My friend and I have been through a lot together. I can't describe the various antics at the GMC but we did some good team working in pulling the carpet from under them all. Things just wouldn't be the same without his antics. There is something about friends you have known for years - you get used to them and you can never imagine a time without them.

We still have to go to the GMC dressed in burkas so we aren't recognised!  I thought of the names Osamina Fartini and Fatima Patel :). There are so many things left to do and so much fun to be had. At least he promised me he would never make anymore attempts like this ever again and that he would live life to the full - as it is meant to be lived. I have promised that I shall not maliciously place his profile on Shaadi.com so that he can find a sad female GP advertising in the back columns of the BMJ asking for the missionary position due to various egg timers.

In the meantime, I am now officially drinking Channel Island milk. Absolute Bliss! And yes, my friend and I are officially back to our usual antics.The GMC may wish to watch out for two "women" in Burkas in the next 80 years.

Survival

When life becomes a series of survival techniques, I am not sure what quality of life doctors have. My friend survived his ordeal yesterday but only just. I was scared shitless .

I often look at myself and wonder what would have happened had the dark tower succeeded in punishing me through their Fitness to Practise Procedures. Some people call me brave for surviving the GMC. The actual honest truth is that I didn't want to end up sitting at the side of Beachy Head contemplating how I was going to die. I am not brave at all. I just know what I want and what I don't want.

Luckily, I have this thing about dying while fat. I consider it totally uncool to be found dead while being overweight without proper lingerie. In my view, death has to be cool and while I am uncool, death is uncool. As silly as this sounds, this is what has prevented me from heading towards the edge. So, there always has to be something that prevents you and reels you back into living your life.

I have always known that the GMC would have driven me to the edge and have taken stock of the situation and stopped them from doing this to me. I think recognising limitations is important. I was never brave enough to face a GMC hearing. This was probably the reason I have litigated against the GMC and fought to survive. Part of litigation is having some modicum of control over a situation. The GMC has this way of making you feel powerless over your life and over everything you do. So, I suppose litigation for me was part of survival. There have been periods in the past were I have just survived from day to day. You eat, you sleep, you watch TV and you wait till the sinking feeling related to the GMC disappears.This often takes effort in the initial stages.

We all have demons in our mind's eye. I think the GMC brings the worst out in doctors. My first way to survive was to alter my mindset and understand that the GMC isn't important in the grand scale of the universe. I often look up at the sky and consider how fragile we all are. A meteor could drop on us in a second and we would all be dead.  So, I really wouldn't have wanted my life to be spent fighting the GMC, one day after another. The GMC has blighted my life in many ways and while I can forget what has been done to me, I cannot forgive or forget what has been done to my friends and colleagues who have been weakened under their tyranny. Perhaps this is the reason I write about various issues on the internet. I would hate the history books to have omitted this dark face of the GMC. The GMC basement may be extended to accommodate for more corpses but one thing is for sure, one day people are going to find out about atrocities meted out on innocent doctors. Until that day, it is important for us all to play our part in raising concerns about our colleagues and friends so the vulnerable and the dead are not forgotten.

I  consider myself fortunate and every day I value the fact I am still living.  This is why I make the most of each day because I remember the days when I simply survived. Freedom is important. Freedom to live is even more important. I think once doctors understand the value of life, the importance of the GMC falls by the wayside. Through all my internal debates about life, death, the world, this is the conclusion I came to. While many doctors deal with life and death from a scientific view, few understand that their own lives should be cherished and protected no matter what.

As they say - Carpe Diem.

Devastated

My friend who has been harassed by the General Medical Council for 4 years took an overdose today. I blame the Medical Protection Society for their substandard representation. I blame the General Medical Council for their disgusting behaviour.

What has it come to? We were all once junior doctors happily working in the NHS only 6 years ago. I now see half my friends within the GMC and half of them crumbling under the pressure that they are placed under by the dark tower. They are being driven to suicide. I hate this happening to them.

In the meantime, there is me - watching this all unfold around me, trying desperately to ensure that they are supported as much as possible through what little any of us can do.

I live my days and my nights and refuse to be beaten by anything and yes, this takes effort. I don't understand why my friends can't develop the idea that the GMC are irrelevant and should not be allowed to control the lives of so many.

When I found out my friend Debra Shepherd had hung herself following a GMC investigation, I decided to continue to write material against the General Medical Council for her sake.

The GMC are now killing innocent doctors and there is nothing we can do about it. This is a terrible situation.

I am devastated.

The Tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

Niall Dickson Hires Baliffs

Dr Pakistan's antics are infamous. He challenged the GMC on the basis of a absurd warning on his surgical practise that essentially assassinated his career prospects. About two years on, Dr Pakistan's challenge against it has brought him nothing but misery. His court challenge against it failed because the judge just didn't understand what the issues were and the GMC spun a yarn. Nothing new there then. Anyhow, the problem with courts is the art of costs. I often get tired of costs threats probably because it doesn't frazzle me at all. These lawyers are often such tiresome creatures. Each time they get scared, they squeal away about costs like a mini pot bellied pig.

Anyhow, costs against Dr Pakistan escalated into court orders and those brought the Baliffs to his door. Of course, there is no stopping this. It does though make us all understand that the GMC are essentially nothing more than the  thieves. They stole his career, stole his livelihood and having made him penniless, they then decided to send the heavies around to strip him of his belongings. That of course tonight's - Arabian Night. A tale of warning that all those who dare challenge the GMC will be chased for costs and then ballifs. This is just another take of the level the GMC often stoops to. I suppose the next thing they can do is sell tickets for Beachy Head.

GMC Offers to Correct Ward 87 Data

The above is a letter from Toni Smerdon. Previously, the antics of West Midlands Public Health Director can be reviewed here. Essentially, the GMC conducted what is known as a sham peer review. This has now been completely discredited [ by my efforts of course]. Had I relied on the system, they were quite happy to character assassinate me. And that is the irritating thing about the GMC - that someone so uncouth and common [ by their low class standards] can run a few rings around them.

We have also seen the fact that North Staffordshire NHS Trust had "significantly" high mortality rate during the years of Professor Griffiths' reign. The above is the GMC's petty way of throwing me a few scraps. Of course, I plan to take up these scraps because I also plan to write a cover note that no one will ever recover from. The General Medical Council has never done the right thing by me. They have never apologized for the spectacular mess they created. I had considered making peace with them but after ten years, I think it is time not to forget or forgive. Afterall, they were the architects in my assassination as a doctor.

To be honest, I am fairly fed up with the General Medical Council. I think I might just joust with them in court just one more time. On the other hand, they are such tiresome boring people and their barristers aren't even good looking. So cosmetically, there are no advantages. Nevertheless, it depends where my mood and the wind takes me. Occasionally, I am known to complete quick injunction forms in about 10 minutes. I may just do that one day when I am bored enough.

In the meantime, I shall create the cover note for the GMC. I shall also publish said cover note here.

So, justice is creeping slowly to me after a decade of unearthing material. The GMC though have severe cramp. The decent thing to do for the GMC is to acknowledge their mistakes and make amends. That is what sensible people do - the GMC though aren't sensible or reasonable or personable. They are despotic. When dealing with despots, occasionally it is just better to walk away and consider them irrelevant in the grand scale of the universe.

Night Terror. My name is Dr Pal not Dr Patel. Get it Right Sir Scott Baker [LJ]

Don't Call me Dr Patel

Part of my turmoil this week has related to the discovery of the case R v GMC Ex Parte Remedy UK [ Final Outcome]. My Judicial Review can be read here [permission] and here [ final outcome]. These cases were judged by one Assistant Registrar - Anna Neill. In order to spring this incompetent half wit and extract themselves from liability, the GMC argued two positions in two cases in the case of the analysis of "misconduct". The upshot of this was as follows, Liam Donaldson and cronies were not investigated by the GMC. I on the other hand was investigated by the GMC, not charged but frisked until it resulted in the loss of my job and my references. The court called my challenge "academic". This meant that I did not have a remedy for a vexatious complaint that resulted in defamatory disclosures to various employers. I cannot therefore remove these defamatory disclosures by any order of the court. This translated tells us that the GMC can run roughshod over any junior doctor on a whim and the courts will allow them to do this.

So, I now have the evidence that the GMC shamelessly perverted the course of justice, touting two misconduct analyses and proceeded to commit this crime in broad daylight in front of numerous judges at the Royal Courts of Justice. Essentially, a list of judges allowed the General Medical Council to get away with a crime.

We now have a situation where there are two competing tests of misconduct - the stricter one can be used for doctors the GMC dislike and the more lenient one can be used for the senior figures. Of course, this is how it has always been for the GMC. It is just that it is now official and sealed by the Judiciary. We translate that on a ethnicity level to mean that one test can be used for a list of senior caucasian doctors and another test can be used for ethnic minority doctors. An irony was that on appeal, Sir Scott Baker [ famous for his role at the Princess Diana Inquest] proclaimed in open court [ and on all the digital court recordings in my possession] that I was Dr Patel. He didn't just say this once but four times. So having essentially discriminated against me throughout the court process, the cherry on the top of the great big cake was the Dr Patel title. This Oxford educated judge who had been an Lord Justice for years could not even get the claimants name right. No doubt all us "immigrants" are called Dr Patel. So I ask myself, whats the point of a English accent and a British passport.

Now, that is how low the Courts have now stooped. Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge once exclaimed "In the eyes of the law we are all equal". This was in one of a number of speeches given at the Equality in Justice Day. Lord Philips went onto say

"When we are appointed we take an oath or affirmation that we will administer justice ‘to do right to all manner of people after the laws and usages of this realm’. We act in accordance with that oath. We treat equally all who come before us, regardless of whether they are men or women, regardless of their race or religion and whether they are rich or poor"

And he continues

"So I can give you this assurance. Any man or woman who appears before a judge in this country will receive equal treatment in the administration of the law. The judge will treat each litigant in the same way. But the judge’s duty is to apply the law, whether he agrees with the law or not. So the important question is not ‘does the judge treat everyone equally?’ but ‘does the law treat everyone equally?’ In any society the answer to that question depends upon the motives, the beliefs, the attitudes, the prejudices or lack of prejudices of those who make the law"

As I write this, I have finally realised that equality is just a work of fiction. No one will bat an eyelid over this scandal in race relations. The fact is that the GMC is now being given the license to run Apartheid or the kind of behaviour last seen in the Last Days of the Raj. The reality today is this - as junior doctors, whether we are whistleblowers, a victim of MTAS, from the ethnic minority or whatever, we have all been kicked by the General Medical Council. We are all treated unequally and stripped of our basic rights. Apparently, we have to tolerate it. Well, we shall see about that.

This is though the first time in the history of the GMC that this discriminatory viewpot held been seen in broad daylight by testing the court results of two conflicting cases. Of course, the high flyers of the judiciary and the GMC rely on their belief that all "immigrants" won't notice what is happening in the GMC or the courts. Of course, the fly in the ointment arises when some of us do notice the antics of those in power and write about it.

This is my night terror today. The terror is this - that a regulatory body can commit a crime in the courts and no judge is able to recognise it.

Medical Self Regulation. Crisis and Change. I'm Shocked

Last night, I was doing some light reading. I nearly jumped out of my skin at 4am this morning. I turned over page 258 in the book and discovered this

"For the GMC to still adopt this approach after Shipman, Ledward and the Bristol Royal Infirmary case and other scandals were lack of reporting have been key factors, suggests that the presumption against whistleblowing is still very stongly ingrained within medical self regulation. The message which Cream sends is that the regulations pay lip service to the importance of reporting concerns, but a doctor putting this into practice risks having to traverse the minefield of the disciplinary procedures.

Pal v GMC originated from events in spring 2000 when Dr Pal had raised a number of complaints to the GMC, primarily involving the alleged mistreatment of elderly patients. Dr Pal corresponded with the GMC's solicitors, but was reluctant to meet with the solicitors simply to repeat evidence she had already given in writing. She did express a willingness to meet with them once they had progressed their investigations. She was also reported as indicating in this correspondence that she did not trust the GMC or its solicitors. A stalemate appears to have been reached. Dr Pal refused to continue to correspond with the GMC's solicitors, emphasizing that she had nothing to add and that they should progress their own investigations. The complaint was closed in October 2000. Shortly afterwards, it was said that internal correspondence within the GMC, between a case worker, deputy to the GMC Chief Executive and Registrar and a GMC Screener, began to cast doubt on Dr Pal's mental health: " Those of us who have dealt with the case in Conduct are concerned that the correspondence on file suggests that Dr Pal may have an underlying health problem. A Screener suggested that :" I do think that she could have a health problem. She is certainly intemperate and possibly paranoid. But at the present time I do not think we have sufficient evidence of ill health to proceed.

An extract from the court proceedings in Pal is illustrative

Judge Harris : For myself I don't really see why somebody complaining about the behaviour of doctors or the GMC, if that is what they are doing, why that should raise a question about their mental stability, unless anyone who wishes to criticise "the party" is automatically showing themselves to be mentally unstable because they don't agree with the point of view put forward on behalf of the GMC or the party.

..... It is like a totalitarian regime: anybody who criticises it is said to be prima facie mentally ill - what used to happen in Russia.

In one respect, a proactive stance on the part of the GMC to appropriately consider the potential risk posed to the public by any doctor - however the information giving rise to suspicion comes to the attention - is to be commended. However, the more concerning aspect of this case is the apparent focus of the GMC on the mental health status of the complainant, apparently at the expense of fully investigating the substance of the original complaint. The case suggests the continuation of echoes within the GMC of the belief that "disparagement" by doctors of their colleagues is somehow inherently unsavoury, and that a doctor making a complaint becomes prone to suspicion. Dr Pal's own reported response to these matters was as follows :

"There has been no complaint against me by any patients and my GP verifies that I have not been mentally ill and the judge agreed. The entire point centres on whistleblowing .... If whistleblowers are to be treated with such contempt, then there will be no one who will prevent the next Dr Harold Shipman"

I thanked Mark Davies this week. This is probably the best write up I have ever had. I suggest the GMC buy the above book as they have attempted to silence this case from the national media for many many years.

Purposeful Concealment . "Significantly High Mortality Rates" at North Staffordshire NHS Trust 2000-2003

A Spectacular Cover-Up.

Well, this is just another crappy day at Whistleblower Towers. Today is one of those pivotal days in evidence collection. It is the kind of day I have waited for since 1998.

There is one aspect that few people understand. The burden of evidence gathering falls on the whistleblower. For ten years, at midnight, I chip away digging through the paperwork unearthing evidence piece by piece. So why do I do it? Possibly because I am an unforgiving sort and I often aim to stand at the top of the mountain laughing outloud at those who once mocked me and told me I could never prove that North Staffordshire NHS Trust had a high mortality rate during the period when Ward 87 remained open. Such is the nature of human beings - a total lack of faith and a total lack of determination. Many in the medical profession love to stand then look down on us mere mortals just to judge. By doing this, they consider themselves better than the average mortal.

When you get to my stage, its easy to do that because I now have the evidence. It wasn't so easy many years ago when I had to face hit after hit from organisation after organisation who shut their doors in my face . Of course, as a junior doctor, I have faced the feeling of being invisible. People walk past you. Indeed, everyone walks past a junior doctor. You aren't taken seriously by medical publications because you have the label "junior doctor" tattooed on your head because that was the time period they pigeon hole you into for good.

You aren't taken seriously by the media because you haven't got the sassy title "Consultant". Well, it is 2010, I have grown up and I treat those who treated me with contempt with the same dose of high strength medicine. I have become intolerant of many doctors. I don't accept the kind of "Pity" lipservice that some provide at arms length.

I feel like going up to Richard Smith and numerous people and shoving the evidence in their faces and saying " I was right and you guys were f***ing wrong". Richard was the typical " Oh you can post in the comments section" but we can't have whistleblowing riff raffs writing for the main journal. Richard loved senior doctors of course. You could get into the BMJ with a fragment of the evidence if you were a consultant. Andrew Wakefield did afterall.

There are many people like Richard, all conceited establishment doctors who stand on their pedestal and tell the world that they are the brilliant ones and the ones who know it all. In reality they know nothing. I say that about a number of very senior doctors who neglected Ward 87. What do I say to these decrepit old doctors who have one foot in the grave - having spent their NHS Pensions and maintained their positions in high society.

Yes, sure I have a few choice words to say to Professor David Brenton and the rest of the clan of half baked incompetent senior doctors who were sent to manage "me" as a whistleblower. There is Professor Temple, Professor Paice, Professor Moss and the list goes on. They are all failures in many ways. There are of course lists and lists of doctors at the General Medical Council but it would take too long to name everyone who played their supporting role in this Ward 87 farce. Then there were the legions of MPs, Peers, condescending lawyers and ex colleagues who opted to look down on me shoving me to their "Never Mind Whistleblower" pile. In the end, there is nothing left to say to these people because nothing can change or make up for the past damage caused. That is a stark reality. It is a reality that every whistleblower has to live with and I am no different.

The search for evidence on Ward 87 has been long and hard. Everything has been concealed from me by the General Medical Council, the Department of Health and every other regulatory body and authority. Unearthing evidence has taken me hours of hard work with huge amounts of paper everywhere. The impression these authorities would like to give the public is that my concerns about Ward 87 were "minor" and that I am making a song a dance about it for no apparent reason. Of course, the truth is a much more bitter tablet to swallow.

My journey this year took me to the CQC. The CQC love to visit this website because they know what a lovely disaster they created. The disaster was created because their head honcho is Cynthia Bower. Cynthia has a problem, she had a lot to do with the Midlands. Ward 87 is of course in the Midlands. The reason Cyn tries to obstruct the Ward 87 /North Staffordshire NHS Trust issue is essentially because she doesn't really want all her friends at the Midlands SHA to face troubled times. This is the reason why the CQC bullshits to me each minute they get. Of course, they presume that I have an IQ of a large fat frog. In reality of course, my IQ is probably equal to theirs.

Sometime ago, Baroness Young considered the Ward 87 issues. This year I approached the CQC after unearthing their archive documentation. I found their internal documentation fascinating. According to Meeta Patel of the CQC, I have a past life :). Perhaps, the CQC is of the view that I have 9 lives. Anyhow, Meeta initially denied the time of day so this is an email I wrote to her. These days, writing these emails often provides me with some sense of entertainment.

From Rita Pal
To Complaints
cc Complaints
date Thu, May 13, 2010 at 10:35 AM
subject Re: Press Statement

Ms Patel

" As you can appreciate we had no knowledge or information about your concerns that you had raised with HCC or CHI in the past"

Don't you have a database?

"Dr Pal, in a past life shared information"

The facts are as follows, patient care was affected before 1998 [ the date of whistleblowing] until 2005 [ when the ward was shut]. That is hardly a "past life".

By the CQC's own admission

" Earlier data from Dr Foster does suggest that they did have more concerning mortality in years before 2003/2004" [9th December 2009 at 13.14 to Sarah Seaholme].

Yet, the CQC produced a bizarre letter relating to post 2005 mortality rates.

On the 19th November 1998, you wrote " Yes, this is a response to a letter drafted for Barbaras office. Happy to meet to discuss further"......

On the 23rd November 2009, you both decided to meet in a canteen [ a public place] to discuss sensitive data about patients and myself.

" Great, will try and find a spare office but may have to meet in the canteen".

Prior to that you wrote on the 10th November 2009

" I have discussed the contents with my line manager Suzannah Burden and we feel that the best way forward would be to respond to the various issues that Dr Pal raises but not as a corporate complaint". [?!]

You go onto say

" I have in various colours below incorporated some notes/commentary which may assist but please ignore them if you feel they are not relevant" [ no doubt playing with your marker pens and I would like a copy of this document].

You therefore studied and had access to my original email. You know its contents already.

Before that on the 17th July 2009 you wrote

c) The advice given in the email below is incorrect......

If you are planning on pleading your naivety regarding the events of Ward 87, you should consider your position again. Firstly, it is wise of you to assume that as doctors we have a level of intellect equivalent to you. Secondly, it is probably wise that you understand that I am not willing to engage in this kind of obstructive behaviour from the CQC.

You state below "In a separate email to me on the 11th May 2010 you have indicated that you have already submitted a summary to Baroness Young in relation to your concerns"

Given you read, used your highlighter pens, had meetings about my concerns to Baroness Young, I am surprised at your position here. Perhaps a case of selective memory loss or is it one of convenience?

I requested a press release from yourselves. It is a simple affair. Please provide it.

Regards

Dr Rita Pal

The problem with playing with too many highlighter pens is that people often fail to read the contents of the email. I subsequently followed up the "more concerning" mortality rates disclosed in their internal emails. The CQC had cleverly failed to inform me of this. Of course, even Brian Jarman of Dr Foster failed to inform me of the statistics despite detailed conversations. So essentially, everyone opted to conceal this data from me. This includes the Kings of the General Medical Council. I sent the email below to the General Medical Council. I asked Neil Marshall to do some soul searching. I couldn't think of what else to say to the General Medical Council. Having needlessly "f***ked" up my life in many ways to DNR status, what else is there to say to them?

EMAIL FROM CQC INFORMATION TEAM DATED 10th June 2010.


Dear Dr Pal

Thank you for your email dated 12th May 2010 in which you made a request for information in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), which the Commission received on that day.

You requested:

* With regard to North Staffordshire NHS Trust - The data that Chris Sherlaw-Johnson referred to in an email to Sarah Seaholme as follows: "Earlier data from Dr Foster does suggest that they did have more concerning mortality in years before 2003/2004."

The Information Governance Team has now processed your request and I can now advise you of the following.

Mr Sherlaw-Johnson was using the HSMR's (Hospital Standardised Mortality Rates) published by Dr Foster.

Year HSMR 2000/01 115.9 2001/02 113.5 2002/03 113.1 Dr Foster classified each of these as 'significantly high'.

As a note of caution. CQC take the view that a high HSMR on its own cannot provide a judgement on the quality of care being provided by a service. It merely raises questions, some of which relate to how the patients are being coded across the trust. It is also very unfocussed and it is often more important to be able to look deeper into whether the high HSMR is unduly influenced by particular specialties.

I hope this explanation helps.

If you are not satisfied with this response you may request an internal review of the Commission’s decision. Please contact:

The Information Governance Team

Care Quality Commission

Finsbury Tower

103-105 Bunhill Row

London

EC1Y 8TG

Alternatively, you may complain via email to:

Information.access@cqc.org.uk.

Please clearly indicate that you wish for an internal review. There is no charge for making an appeal.

Further rights of appeal exist to the Information Commissioner’s Office (www.ico.gov.uk) once the internal appeals process has been exhausted.

The contact details are:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545 700



If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me.



Yours sincerely

Pamela Coxon
Information Governance Officer
Secretariat - Information Governance Team
Care Quality Commission
St Nicholas Building
St Nicholas Street
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 1NB


Tel: 0191 233 3552
Fax: 01484 770 014
E-mail: pamela.coxon@cqc.org.uk

The only person with any brain power at the CQC is Pamela Coxon who can actually do her job and do it well. The rest clearly spend too much time gassing in the canteen about confidential medical data.

As regular readers of the blog will remember, North Staffordshire NHS Trust had one of the highest compensation rates in the Midlands. Essentially, it was higher than that of Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust.

Member name	Total paid
Burton Hospitals National Health Service Trust	335,088
Mid Staffordshire General Hospitals NHS Trust	652,418
North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust	106,764
Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic and District Hospital NHS Trust	81,258
Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust	951,905
South Staffordshire Healthcare NHS Trust	33,420
Staffordshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust	0
University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust	3,515,590

Source - Hansard - NHSLA 2004-2005.

So yes, I can stand on the roof tops and scream that I was right. I can laugh at the General Medical Council, the CQC, The Health Commission, CHI, the NMC etc and say I was right and they were wrong. Where does that get me now? Where does that get the people who died? Who will be there to bring the consultants, doctors, managers who negligently and purposefully concealed this data so no reasonable investigation would see the light of day?

The answer is "No one". And that is the reality of whistleblowing as a junior doctor. In the end, few people give a damn whether you saved thousands of people or whether you were right or wrong. This is the reason why you just have to do your job as a doctor and quietly walk away. It is this indifference to evidence and accountability that should persuade each and every doctor to thick twice about whistleblowing. It takes 1 second to whistleblow and 12 years to establish that you were right all along. That is real life - not the cosmetics advertised by the BMA and other organisations who view whistleblowing as some starry eyed act of cosmetic heroism.

The Doctor Syndrome

I always look around me at some of my friends who are quite addicted to the doctor syndrome. It is almost as if they lose their identity if they are no longer a doctor. This is probably the most common symptom of those constructively erased from the GMC or the NHS. Symptoms are repeatedly writing their degrees after their names, obsessively using the "Dr" title and hanging onto some kind of element of being a "Dr". A lot of doctors face the prospect of dealing with bereavement from their medical careers. For some it is difficult for them to accept that its over so they continue to bash their heads against a brick wall - usually the GMC, trying to justify how right they are. Of course, they are usually right but the GMC never listens. It is this addiction to their lives as doctors that makes them feel that they do not exist without belonging to the medical profession.

For me, I accepted the end of my medical work. It wasn't a sudden issue. I had always understood that the prognosis was poor and that I was on borrowed time. Whistleblowers don't survive long in the NHS. When the end came in the form of a GMC referral in 2007, I accepted the fact that I was either going to spend years banging my head against the brick wall or circumstances would just cut me off from the medical profession. And it did cut me off as predicted. I was cut off from the mother ship, few noticed or cared. Few wondered what I would live on or survive with. These are of course not issues that the public worry about because to them doctors always have money. I am not sure where it grows, probably a money tree. I didn't have the seeds so I survived the hard way. I probably moped for a day or two cursing the GMC, the NHS but in end you just have to dust your coat and move onto the next episode of your life. And that is what I did. Once doctors understand and accept the end, moving on is probably empowering in many ways. The shackles that once tied you to the system are broken, you discover that there is a world outside medicine. Starting to live like a normal person is hard but not impossible. You look around you and 90 percent of the world exists quite happily without being linked to the medical profession.

So I haven't missed my medical friends. I often find those I have stopped contacting, tiresome and limited in their view point. They all live in their limited worlds gloating about one degree or another, puffing their chests and running at 100mph with society - never once thinking that there maybe another dimension of thought. I wrote this for those who find themselves at a crossroad. You either leave medicine or you are thrown out - either way, acceptance of your situation is the key to the future. I never look back with regret. It is after all not my loss that the medical profession threw me out of the mother ship. I have existed and do exist quite happily without them. That is the product of having an alternative ego.

Update

Following the above post, I quite liked this though provoking comment left below. I have cut and pasted it here because it makes a lot of sense.

"I agree with you and would like to say that it is hard to deal with losing any career, not just medicine, when you have spent too much time and effort to prepare for it, and specially when you have had high hopes for future prosperity and progression in that career only to see all these hopes crashing so suddenly. As you say, it does take time to get over it- that's providing you know that it is still 'you' inside that body and that you can do it again and again. I chose, or I had to choose, to leave a promising career because of family matters, sulked and stagnated and was really limp and angry for a while, then because it was me still inside there, I just one day got up and got out. I rose to the challenge and I never looked back since! I suppose I was in such a deep predicament that it became impossible to allow it to continue. I now remember the old days with affection rather than bitterness. Perhaps because it worked out better than if I had stayed in that career I left - and because I did it on my own without anyone's help too. There is definately personal gratification in that.

So, as you say, there is plenty of hope out there and it is free. And when some are lost, more will just appear - on their own - as if by magic! You just need to leave your heart and your eyes open so that you don't miss them when they pass by"

Kolkatta Medics. Stay in Bengal. Say "No" to the British Offer

Don't Beg to the Racist NHS

So I see the British authorities have started to hold interviews in Kolkatta India. Apparently, there is a junior doctor shortage in the United Kingdom. The Times of India also reported it. The problem with an ex communist influenced West Bengal is that they have this aged view that England is the land of golden opportunity. Of course, few research the implications of coming to an alien unfriendly country like the UK. We have NHS doctors like Ferret Fancier insulting foreign doctors each time he gets the opportunity. More recently, Daniel Ubani has provided miles of ammunition for the UK system to demonise all foreign doctors to the extent their English and their competence has come under intense scrutiny. No criticism is made of one of their own serial diamorphine administrators who serially ended the lives of numerous patients. Indeed, Oxford qualified British English perfect English speaker Barton is responsible for ending the lives of more patients than all the foreign doctors put together.

Nevertheless, for any Indian doctor who considers coming to the UK, they should remember the following issues

1. There are extensive documentation and reports to establish the fact that racism is flourishing in the United Kingdom. Here is the Guardian link. The failures of race equality duties are shown here.

2. The king of institutional racism, the General Medical Council, a regulatory body that all foreign doctors have to register with, continued with its demonisation of foreign doctors. This band wagon was continued by the Health Select Committee.

3. The recent statistics show that foreign doctors were 60 percent more likely to be struck off than British trained doctors. I wrote about the GMC's trail of behaviour here.

Lastly, I have one comment to make, having constructively dismissed a number of good doctors from the NHS [ me included], I find it interesting that the Department of Health are now persuading Bengali doctors to come to the UK implying that it is some kind of land of hope and glory. Smell the roses doctors, this land ain't a land of hope and glory. It is a land where you will be degraded, stripped of your integrity and the shirt on your back and sent back to India. If the current Bengali doctors have any doubt about this, you should just take a look at the manner in which the UK treated the last set of foreign doctors who were left on the street to beg.

Who can forget the tragedy of this doctor who decided to hang himself.

"Dr Yousaf was found hanged in a room above his friend's surgery last month. Although he left no note, beside him was a letter from immigration officials saying there would be no further extensions on his visa."

In 2006, the headline detailed the plight of jobless foreign doctors stripped of everything.

"Standing in the courtyard of the Sri Mahalakshmi Hindu temple in east London, a dozen jobless doctors are eating dhal, rice and potatoes off paper plates.

Wrapped against the cold in anoraks and sweaters, they come here each evening when the temple serves free food. They eat in the gloom before slipping away to damp, squalid lodgings where many sleep three to a room.

"They are among thousands of overseas doctors who have flocked to Britain in the past five years in response to the NHS's global appeal for more staff. But instead of finding hospitals ready to welcome them, they face unemployment, poverty and discrimination"

This situation should never be forgiven. I always say this because so many foreign doctors are so naive about the maliciousness of the NHS. They use and abuse their staff and care nothing if doctors hang themselves at the end of it. If that happens, all the NHS staff and doctors would say is "Ah but he was unstable anyway". There is no kindness in the National Health Service. If there is a scapegoat, it will always be the foreign doctor who ends up at the GMC facing the music. The GMC in turn has no scruples about ruining doctors careers. Our collective advice would be to use your talents and stay in West Bengal. The people need you there. The population in the UK and the doctors here are not ready for any further foreign doctors. Slave labour is something no one should degrade themselves into doing. The NHS in this country is not one for being honest or making promises they will keep. They are in Bengal to hire unassuming young innocent doctors with golden promises to do their slave labour. No doctor in their right mind should be employed by an organisation who has no respect for anyone.

Thieves

My Lawyers

Having reviewed my legal bills between 2004-2007, I have decided unilaterally that all lawyers are nothing more than thieves. It isn't as if they even do a good job either. If we as doctors did as bad a job as lawyers do, we would be struck off every year. Anyhow, the bills given to me were nothing short of daylight robbery.

That's my thought of the week. This is also the week I have watched the MPS drop a sick doctor because all their egos were hurt. The QC Diva decided to make a sharp exit after minting the money from the doctor's defence union. He also purchased a £75,000 car which shows us how much the MPS were paying him for sitting around and looking pretty in his wig. I shall write more fully about this later this year. In the meantime, I remain shocked, astounded and disgusted by the way they essentially used this doctor then dropped him when he was no longer lucrative. I think it is time to name and shame some people only because their behaviour disgusts me. It didn't help that I recommended this QC either. This is why I never recommend lawyers anymore.