In the blog@orthopaedicprinciples
Shankar N Kashyap, BSc, MBBS, MCh.Orth, FRCS.Glas, FRCS.Ed
Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Specialist in Adult Joint Reconstruction
Newcastle upon Tyne,
Tyne & Wear,
UNITED KINGDOM
This is a story based on true events in the author’s life over the years. A highly successful consultant orthopaedic surgeon’s life is turned upside down by actions of four colleagues with malicious intent compounded by the bungling of the regulatory organisation – The General Medical Council. The British Government has just announced the revamping of the set up of the Fitness to Practice Panel with new guidelines to make the assessment and decisions more transparent and fair.
In the story, an assessment team is sent out to assess the surgeon. The assessment is done in a hotel room by three doctors with very little knowledge of the specialty of the surgeon concerned. Two of them are retired surgeons with no or very little knowledge of current practice and one of them has never worked in a hospital. Their incompetent assessment report forms the basis of a trial by the Fitness to Practice Panel set up by the GMC. This panel again consists of a retired Philosopher, a retired lay Vicar and a General Practitioner with no knowledge of orthopaedic surgery. The panel goes through various stages making blunders at every stage. There are “Specialist Medical Advisers” appointed to assist the panel who make a mockery of the system. They are present during only a part of the trial, and both of them get recused for rampant bias.
This book highlights the bureaucracy, corruption and incompetence that is rampant in the GMC. There are a number of places where the organisation’s officers are shown to pervert the course of trial, only to be ignored by the panel. This will expose the inadequacies within the organisation and bound to be controversial. I have obviously changed the names of people involved and places to protect privacy of individuals.
There are numerous doctors facing same or similar fate in the hands of an archaic organisation bent on “protecting patients” at all costs. In the process of stopping doctors who may be incompetent, a large number of extremely good doctor’s careers and lives are being ruined every day. The process is so long and arduous that anyone coming out of it “successfully” is literally torn apart and so demoralised that they disappear into obscurity
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