Dr B's Legal History.

GMC Chair Faces Questions on the size of his ears.

Dr B achieved his postponement of the GMC Interim Order Panel Hearing yesterday. Despite being ill, Dr B is back up this morning. He has sent a chase up email to the General Medical Council thanking the Chairman for his consideration. He has also decided to tag a chase up line at the end stating that there has been no response or acknowledgment to his pre-action documents.

Dr B may be a little ratty and on a short fuse but no one can say that he doesn't try. I have this theory that this demeanor helps him fight on. And by anyones standards, the GMC have harassed him over minor issues for quite sometime now. Dr B shows us that stamina is required to fight the GMC and boy does he keep going. When knocked down, he picks himself up , dusts himself off and continues his defence.

Sadly, Dr B's predicament is really because Robert Jay QC failed miserably to assess the GMC's vendetta against him. Dr B is a muslim doctor, clearly intelligent and capable, who was forced to under go mental health assessments at the GMC. This was done after a few intemperate emails were sent over the MMC issue.

Robert Jay QC was convinced he would be cleared and allowed to leave the hallowed halls of GMC Towers. He was cleared but no one predicted that the ratty emails he had written would end up in the Conduct procedures. By that time, the Royal College had withdrawn their complaint. Yet, instead of being reasonable, the GMC stamped down on Dr B.

The fire started to be fueled as he was hyperscrutinised at each Trust and mobbing commenced. Each consultant got excited about the warning on his record that was already under challenge in court. Having got excitable, they decided to mob him. That is one of the characteristics of GMC intervention, everyone thinks its a free party and sticks their ore in. Soon from one simple issue, the Trusts and consultants can build it into a dossier of " Awww, he was rude to me". Seriously, what do these consultants expect - they refer you to the GMC and you are supposed to be "polite"?! It is a bit like saying " Hey, here I am, its me Dr B, I shall sit silently and speak politely while you stab me in the chest and ruin my career".

So, we wonder whether the £3K plus VAT paid to Robert Jay QC was really worth it. Robert Jay QC now works for the Medical Defence Union.

In the end, we all have to be buried alive under a pile of legal papers because lawyers have a certain perception that the GMC is a fair minded creature of statute. There is a moat around doctors and lawyers. Neither understand each other. They equate their complaints system to ours. And you tell them, if you guys as lawyers were appraised and revalidated like doctors, there wouldn't be any lawyers left in the UK! I often argue, how would you feel like it if we took your complaint at the Law Society and circulated it to all the clients and courts. At that point, there is a silence and the topic moves on. Yet that is exactly what they find acceptable in the treatment of doctors facing the GMC. Most lawyers fail to understand basic concepts and therefore fail to represent their clients properly. I have effectively given up explaining anything to any lawyer. In Dr B's case, the lawyers he paid large quantities of money to ended up failing him miserably.

The GMC is of course a stark raving bonkers organisation with the brain the size of a small pea and that is being generous. As one of the commenters of this website points out, it is the Blackstone Brothers - Robert Englehart and Mark Shaw QC who props up the flaws of this organisation. Shaw was infamous in arguing that complaints could not be taken up without a complainant. When it came to Dr B and this statement in court was pointed out - ie It was mentioned that the Royal College had withdrawn the complaint so there was no complainant. Shaw QC relied on Dr B's solicitor's apology to persuade the court during the challenge to the warning. Dr B then argued, well, it wasn't my apology, it was the solicitors who advised me wrongly. And of course, no one paid the blind bit of attention. And here is an example of a solicitor badly assessing the situation and bombing the doctors future. Again, there is no accountability there either.

Of course, we all notice when Mark Shaw QC argues one thing in one case and diametrically the opposite argument in a different case. Misleading the courts in this way is never taken lightly. Nevertheless, we all know the Blackstone brothers will never be held accountable. Why allow truth and justice to come in the way of a good defence?

Dr B's case is probably a damning indictment of harassment by the General Medical Council. A selection of intemperate emails to the Royal College has now broadened into mass mobbing. The GMC have a vendetta, the rumour is that they even have a hitlist. Dr B is now their target. Only Dr B can get himself out of the GMC's target range. How he plans to do that remains to be seen.

In the meantime of course, Robbie Powell's doctors who forged, lied and deceived remain without an investigation or sanction.

I am sure that by the time the GMC have dealt with Dr B, they will have to reach for the Omeprazole max dose. He fights the GMC well and he still has a few tacts left.

A doctor can only try their best. That is all anyone expects. Sadly, Dr B may know the law, he may know the facts but the GMC will always twist arguments and the law to suit them. This is why Mark Shaw QC is paid so well. You have to be paid well to place truth and justice to one side. Shaw's hobby of misleading the courts will go unnoticed in all forums. Turning a blind eye is the way of the world.

Dr B is fighting in a world where there is no justice. Still just occasionally every doctor must fight for what they believe in.

Video - Courtesy of two excellent bloggers