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GMC like ‘totalitarian regime’ says judge On the 6th February 2005, the Sunday Mercury newspaper carried an account of His Honour Judge Harris’ damning judgment against the GMC in the first hearing of the case R. Pal v General Medical Council, Peter Lynn, Sarah Bedwell and Catherine Green. The Sunday Mercury article is reproduce below by kind permission of
the author. Copies of the hearing transcripts and judgment in
Microsoft Word format are available for download here: Also on the 6th February 2005, the Observer newspaper reported that the General Medical Council had been aware of serious concerns about the paediatrician, Professor Sir Roy Meadow, since the year 2000 - long before he gave evidence which led to at least two mothers being wrongfully jailed for murder. According to the Observer’s report, internal emails sent by Isabel Nisbet, then the GMC’s head of Fitness to Practise Directorate, show that the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) had been attempting to contact her for “some weeks” but that she was “not up to speed” on the case. The full story from the Observer is available here. Intriguingly, the slow-motion Ms Nisbet was, later that year, consulted during the early stages of the GMC’s secret two-year investigation of Dr Pal. This investigation, which included printing out and circulating copies of this web site and making “discrete, confidential inquiries” into her background after she raised concerns about poor standards of elderly care, ultimately proved to be groundless. Perhaps, if the GMC had paid more attention to the concerns of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health than it did to the baseless fancies of its clerical staff, two innocent women would not have been jailed on the basis of Professor Sir Roy Meadow’s flawed evidence. The GMC – Protecting Patients and Guiding Doctors? Since when?! I said elderly people were being helped to die - so they
tried to say I was mad By TOM WELLS, Sunday Mercury, 06/02/2005
Dr Rita Pal went to the watchdog five years ago, claiming seriously ill elderly patients were being helped to die in Midland hospitals. But instead of taking her shocking complaints seriously, the GMC turned on her.
Now DrPal could sue for huge damages after a judge blasted the controversial doctors' watchdog for acting like a 'totalitarian regime' similar to Stalin's Russia. Today we reveal the extraordinary story of how Britain's leading medical regulator led a witch-hunt against a courageous whistleblower - coordinated by a mystery GMC figure called 'The Screener'.
The preliminary hearing - held last summer - had been brought by the watchdog who wanted to 'strike out' any lawsuit from the psychiatrist before it reached full trial. Instead their case - which cost them £84,000 in legal fees - was thrown out and, despite lengthy talks between the two parties, a settlement appears unlikely. Now Dr Pal is understood to be considering lodging a potentially huge claim for damages over data protection breaches, human rights abuses and defamation.
But Dr Pal's case will send shockwaves through the medical profession which is still reeling from recent disasters such as serial killer Dr Harold Shipman and the child organs retention scandal. She told the Sunday Mercury: 'The treatment I have received at the hands of the GMC has been far worse than that meted out to a mass murderer.
Although Dr Pal's court battle has just come to light, the case actually dates back to April 2000. Then a junior doctor, she broke ranks to go public and highlight a string of alleged patient abuses in Midland hospitals. She claimed dying patients had medication withdrawn by medical staff to hasten death and free up beds while others, who were also seriously ill, were given drugs to kill them. Dr Pal, now 32, later submitted a dossier of evidence to the GMC and promised to co-operate with their investigation into her allegations. But after the watchdog refused to meet her on her own terms in Birmingham, the busy doctor pulled out after becoming frustrated with the lack of support she was getting. She had also been advised by a GMC insider to be wary of being interviewed by a watchdog whose reputation was already under scrutiny because of its handling of complaints against its own doctors. As the months drew on, her complaints were seemingly forgotten by the GMC. But then in 2003 Dr Pal - now working as a psychiatrist - received a tip-off that high-powered figures at the watchdog were probing her own conduct. She issued a request under the Data Protection Act, demanding the GMC hand over all files they held on her. Astonishingly, when she received them Dr Pal found a series of internal memos questioning her sanity and fitness to practise as a doctor. They had been exchanged between three GMC officials: Catherine Green, a case worker; Peter Lynn, deputy to GMC chief executive and registrar Finlay Scott; and Sarah Bedwell, head of screening. Also heavily involved was a mysterious figure - known within the GMC as 'The Screener'. Despite repeated requests for the identity of 'The Screener' to be publicly revealed, the GMC have refused to disclose it. But their job was to act on behalf of the president, Sir Graeme Catto, by 'screening' investigations into doctors BEFORE they began to determine whether they should go ahead at all. A stunned Dr Pal read how her refusal to co-operate with the probe into her original allegations was now being turned against her. One memo from Mr Lynn, datedNovember 30 2000, read: '...She may be suffering from mental illness...Her correspondence, particularly the documents I have flagged, certainly demonstrate that Dr Pal is extremely irrational... 'There must be some concern about this doctor having direct access to patients.' The memos, which went right to the top of the GMC, showed how 'The Screener' tried to use his or her power to smear Dr Pal. Another memo, from 'The Screener', read: '...I may be able to make discreet confidential enquiries [about Dr Pal] which I will do and then discuss...' A year later, in October 2001, discussions over Dr Pal were STILL going on inside GMC headquarters. A memo 'The Screener' wrote said: 'I do think that she could have a health problem. She is certainly intemperate and possibly paranoid...' And despite having no proof whatsoever that Dr Pal was suffering from any mental health problems, the GMC kept the memos on file. Following her Data Protection Act request, a furious Dr Pal demanded the GMC delete the records but they refused. She then hired a top barrister and took the watchdog to court - where she notched up victory in the first legal skirmish. Judge Charles Harris, QC, ruled the GMC had no grounds for dismissing Dr Pal's claims before they reached court and told her she had every right to take the matter to a full jury trial. He also awarded her £18,000 in costs and launched a withering attack on the conduct of the GMC. Judge Harris said: 'It [the GMC] is like a totalitarian regime: anybody who criticises it is said to be prima facie mentally ill - what used to happen in Russia... 'Costs - at least the defendants' costs - were clearly out of hand...some pounds 84,000. This...is a sum which must, in my judgement, be difficult to justify.' Dr Pal told the Mercury: '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. 'It is due to the catastrophic failure of systems like the GMC and Department of Health that Dr Shipman managed to kill so many people - it of course starts with discrediting a whistleblower from the outset.' The GMC memos November 30 2000, from Peter Lynn: November 30 2000, from the 'Screener': October 17 2001, from the 'Screener': E-mail to Dr Pal, April 30 2004, from the GMC:
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[Home] [NHS Exposed] [Patients] [Health Workers] [NHS in Crisis] [Legal Issues] [Media] [Helpdesk] [Public Views] All copyright remains with original authors unless otherwise stated. |
A
BRAVE NHS whistleblower could land a record damages pay-out from the
General Medical Council - after it branded her 'mentally ill' in a
secret smear campaign.
Top-ranking
staff openly questioned her sanity and even talked of launching a
probe into whether she was fit to practise.
Dr
Pal, from Sutton Coldfield, recently won a landmark court case which
now paves the way for her to sue the GMC. 
Last
night, the watchdog refused to comment on our story, saying only: 'Due
to the ongoing legal action in this case we are not able to comment.'
'Yet
I have never killed a patient, nor have there been any complaints
against me.'