I love this poster for the No to the Lisbon treaty vote in Ireland last year. Many are wondering why the financial regulators failed to protect public, let me tell you its not just the FSA, its the politicians, all people with their nose in the trough will not want to slow down the gravy train and their best friend is apathy. Former Government minister Michael Portilo Speaking on the BBCs “This Week” in March awarded his political moment of the week to the public health regulators, for their failure to investigate abnormal death rates in 10 health trusts in England and Department of Health's support of this decision.
His words were “These regulators are not there for ordinary people, so seeped are they in the mire which they regulate”. His comments brought a smile to my face after my own six months on the Chiropractic regulatory board; The General Chiropractic Council. The chiropractic profession has self statutory regulation so it is up to the regulator to regulate the profession, when this is not been done fairly one would have thought you could contact the Department of Health, The Privy Council, or even the Body set up to watch the regulators The CHRE you would be wrong. When there is a complaint made about the Chief Executive Margaret Coats or any other member of council by a member of the public or a member of the profession it was investigated by her lap dog the Chairman of the GCC Peter Dixon. He might get another jobs worth Martin Capel a former policeman to conduct an investigation, or someone who needs something like Christina Cunlife to promote his cause. If the complaint was against Dixon it was investigated by his close ally and friend the Margo Ledbetter of the GCC Judith Worthington. Now the public and the profession have been told that regulatory reform was going to change all this cronyism, and GCC members would be appointed by the appointments commission. Guess what? They re-appointed all these people who messed it up in the first place should you be surprised, when was a regulator ever held to account. The people who are on regulatory boards have time on their hands, probably because they were not as successful in their chosen career as they would have liked. These are ambitious people who are prepared to do a job which pays only £300 but carries prestige among people who do not know any better, like politicians regulators would have you believe that they have a vocation to serve, rather than a desire to feather their own nest and perhaps get their noses in a good expenses trough.
I,Richard Lanigan DC with an Masters in health promotion am the editor of this blog. A former two year president of the Chiropractic Student council, I was elected onto the UK chiropractic regulators council in May 2007 with a large mandate from the chiropractic profession based on the slogan "The GCC ( the chiropractic regulator) is Not fit for Purpose". The GCC chairman Peter Dixon came last in the poll with less than half the votes I received, yet for reasons which were never made clear stayed on as chairman, and spend the duration of my time on council trying to get me to apologise to the chief executive Margaret Coats for calling her among other things, incompetent, a bully, of being economical with the truth, dereliction of duty, as the line manager to Greg Price her deputy who had posted derogatory and obscene messages about registered chiropractors on the internet. (Even Priminister Gordon Brown apologised for this kind of behaviour at No 10) at the GCC Coats did every thing she could to burry Prices misdeeds, using data protection to cover Price and allow him to work for another health regulator the UKCP.
Before I was elected onto the General Chiropractic Council, I made no secret of my opinion that Coats was unsuitable to performs the duty of Chief Executive of the GCC, the biggest ever survey of the UK chiropractic profession supported my view and showed that 77% of registered chiropractors had no confidence in the GCC, this lack of confidence was reciprocated by the Chiropractic Patients Association.
Some council members were terrified that Margaret Coats would sue the GCC for constructive dismissal after my election to the council, then in February 2008 things came to a head, Margaret Coats told a Council meeting that there was “no evidence” that derogatory postings made by Greg Price had been made from a GCC server, and Peter Dixon denied that the police had questioned someone at the GCC about Prices activities.
Acting as the prosecutor GCC chairman Peter Dixon called a special general council meeting regarding my conduct on council. Then in a way any autocratic dictator would be proud of Peter acted as judge at the hearing and was able to vote on the jury in his “Kangeroo court”. Thirteen of the 20 council members voted to have me removed from the board of the general chiropractic council. During my time on council I kept a diary with my observations on how the GCC functions and my expulsion for whistle blowing the activities of former deputy Registrar Greg Price and the GCC cover up. Now March 3rd 2009 exactly 12 moths after my expulsion from the council and the announcement of the new reformed GCC with the same old faces, after many requests I shall begin to tell my story of regulatory incompetence.
Most of the postings prior to March 2009 have been pasted from what were the Chiropracticlive/ Chiropractic-uk forums which the GCC spent at least £60,000 trying to close down. One could argue the GCC was successful in that they created fear in the profession and a reluctance for registered chiropractors to speak their minds on the forums for fear of being brought before the GCC. The GCC is very litigious and has very deep pockets which the reader should be mindful of when they get irritated by all the caveats and references in my writing. First let me make clear that I resigned from the Chiropractic Register in January 2009 for three simple reasons. The GCC failed in its statutory duty;
- To Protect the Public
- To Promote the profession
- To set standards of chiropractic education.
and is therefore not fit for purpose. I have no doubt things will get worse for the profession and the public after the regulatory reforms are implemented. The profession will be medicalised, incompetent chiropractors will be encouraged to prescribe drugs instead of using manual techniques. The ASA is and will be used by the GCC to restrict scope of practice to Musculoskeletal pain syndromes.
Many chiropractors remain on the register for the simple reason that registered chiropractors do not have to pay 17.5% tax on their income. That is their choice and as much as I would like to keep that tax for myself, I could not bring myself to help sustain this incompetent organisation any longer which is like asking turkeys to pay for Christmas.
Resigning from the chiropractic register means, I can no longer call myself a chiropractor in the UK. However unlike 40% of the GCC registered chiropractors I can call myself a chiropractor in any other country and I have a practise in Ireland as well as the UK.The GCC is probably the only chiropractic board in the world that would appoint a physiotherapist to chair its education standards committee I believe this with accrediting non ECCE accredited courses is a major step towards the medicalisation of chiropractic in the UK, similar to what has happened to ostepaths in the US.
The blog is indexed into “categories” that best describe what I am writing about. The postings then appear in chronological order on the page. “Tags” refer to people and subjects that are being written about and may produce postings from a variety of categories. The Home page carries posting that are of interest and receive most readers. The blog will also look at befefits of chiropractic treatment and compare the risks to standard medical treatment which registered chiropractors are not allowed to do as it is seen as “criticising another health professional.”
Irish folk singer Christy Moore dedicated the words of this song “Yellow Triangle” to my mother Phylis McGhee.
"When first they came for the criminals I did not speak.
Then they began to take the Jews. When they fetched the people who were members of the trade unions, I did not speak.
When they took the bible students, rounded up the homosexuals, Then they gathered the immigrants and gypsies I did not speak.
Eventually they came for me, and there was no one left to speak."
