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.
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.
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.
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
Graeme
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.
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.
14 comments:
Catto is a slimey old goat.
What are you doing fraternising with the enemy Dr Pal?
What enemy?
I speak to a lot of people. I have a lot of time for CG. I don't like his politics on occasion but it doesn't mean I can't be civil. We often agree to disagree on certain subjects. It happens.
Rita
Bit silent around here?
Congrats Rita
Catto is a pompous old fool, I guess you make good buddies. You've spent a decade venting extreme amounts of spleen about the GMC on the internet. Yet you fail to realise that Catto embodies the kind of doctor that created the environment that screwed you around. He was president of the GMC for years and just because he threw you some little concession about Professor Griffiths, you start pretending he's really a decent sort. Bullshit. Does he ever contact you first? No. It's always you who contacts him, and ocassionally he throws you a patronising scrap of correspondence back. You're a sucker who can't see the wood from the trees. And Catto remains the very embodiment of the bad old GMC.
Firstly, the chronology of the facts regarding me are as follows
1. President Irvine was largely responsible for everything that happened to me.
2. [1] was accompanied by Finlay Scott. But even Fin is a badboy and bad boys can never be good boys.
3. Not sure who started the conversation between Catto and myself. I believe it started at the GMC. I know GC's limitations. I also know his flaws. Secondly, I am also of the view that he did try to correct the issue on Griffiths. Then given the fact that those responsible for the Remedy UK catastrophe could not get accountability through the GMC, I think it was probably a bit of a miracle that I got a DOH official - Prof Griffiths investigated not once but twice with acknowledgments that I was right. So overall, for a first time in terms of management accountability, it wasn't bad. And yes, I was thankful that Catto sanctioned two presidential reviews and judged for me against the DOH lawyers. These issues were in his power.
I think the bad old GMC originates with Walton, then Irvine and Catto took the rest of it. GC isn't perfect but I am not his buddy and he is not mine. We simply get on with each other quite superficially. I can get on with many people very superficially. Miller for instance dislikes him - and I see why and respect her for it. I have though seen many many many wicked people in the world.
I don't think being civil to people is backing down on your principles. I can always be civil to many of my enemies - and I often have been. Of course, how I write is not quite how I am. It is important to understand the distinction. I have civil conversations with many people I dislike at the GMC. Neil Marshall is one.
I doubt that Catto throws me scraps as you put it. We have brief conversations and a few exchanges over a number of issues. He has many failings like I do. People don't have to be decent for me to communicate with them. I communicate with all kinds of people, from all walks of life - including those tried for crimes etc. If the very fact I communicate with them is indicative of me getting into bed with them - then you are quite narrow minded.
So in summary, communication with GC has never meant that I have deserted my principles. GC accepts me just the way I am as do many people. I have no intention of ever changing. Sometimes, you can meet on civil territory and discuss matters even with people you dislike.
RP.
Your chummy jesting with Catto is typical of the old doctor-GMC club mentality. If you want to have useful exchanges with with him, try asking if he ever feels pangs of guilt over the many people he severely let down during his time as GMC president (not that he'd reply to that). I'm sure you won't though because you're too thankful for the small concessions he made to you in you Griffiths complaint - which nonetheless took you years of tortuous effort. Catto accepts you for the way you are eh? How warm and fuzzy. Maybe you can expect an invite to his Aberdeen estate garden barbeque. Expect lost of puffed up old codgers guffawing away at their stuffy 'jokes'. You might just fit right in.
"try asking if he ever feels pangs of guilt over the many people he severely let down during his time as GMC president"
If you observe his response above, you will note that he disagrees with my remark on the GMC. What does this mean to you?
I don't do garden parties or Barbecues.
By the way, cease being a prat or a prawn. You are trying to imply that I have merged into the guffawing set. I live according to my own terms and have always done. If I wanted to merge into the "social" set, I wouldn't be writing radical and controversial material on the net.
With respect to Griffiths and Catto - I consider it a victory. It was a hard battle - even though it took 4 years. It is better than giving up - which is indeed what you did :)
RP
There's a difference between radical and tabloid looney. Guess which you fall under. As for me 'giving up', I don't know who you think I am and I don't care, but that comment just shows you don't have any clue anyway. Not that giving up is necessarily a bad thing. As your last hopeless judicial review proves, it's best to know when to quit. You seem to claim you challenged Catto. I doubt you did a good job, otherwise he wouldn't have responded. He jumps at the chance to play the patronising jester, if anyone takes a decent shot at him he ducks and hides.
Oh I think my JR record equals that of Remedy UK. First challenges tend to fail due to various issues. The JR isn't finished just yet. In any case, I effectively won on the issue of the GMC - I was cleared. The JR was just for doctors like you who don't understand basic concepts.
Anyhow, few issues
1. If you are of the view that the writing is pointless, please take yourself away and read some other website. For a coward like yourself who skulks around anonymously, I can understand why you have the views you do.
2. You shouldn't walk around with your IP address showing. Of course I know who you are.
3. Catto and I have a lot of discussions. His way of dealing with issues that are controversial is not to respond. Indeed, thats your way of dealing with various issues as you were unable to outargue the issue of my so called affiliations with Catto that have never existed. They clearly exist in your mind - because lets face it, your own brain isn't quite in order as you are now being forced to take pot shots in the region of character assassination [ as you have no other argument left] apart from tub thumping on your key board in a ratty state - all the right notes but not quite in the right order!
May I suggest you inject some rationality in your posts. By the way, please feel free to JR the GMC like Remedy and myself. When you have won there - you can come back here and crow about it.
:)
RP
So you still refuse to give up on your last misguided judicial review. We await the next installment of your hopless, pathological GMC obsession with baited breath.
It is only misguided to those who do not understand GMC jurisprudence.
Secondly, I have never had an obsession with the GMC. I merely know them better than they know themselves.
Yes, do wait. Like most things, I will probably end up doing the winning in the end.
Productive way to spend a life. Not.
Whats productive?
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