The only way to get information out is to breach confidentiality

The concept of confidentiality within the GCC would seem to an oxymoron. There have been many investigations into leaks of information from council, in fact if we look at the latest investigation, so conditioned were the executive to assume breach of confidentiality, that solicitors were instructed before council members were even asked about the matter.

So low is Peter’s confidence in the security of council information that in September 2007 he had to write to chiropractic council members (except me because I had posted openly) asking for assurances that they have not posted anti GCC sentiments on websites and if they had, to promise that they would not do so again in the future. The vote of confidence in Michael Copeland Griffiths was confirmed to me by four council members before he actually resigned.

I have had copies of the minutes for the majority of council’s closed meetings for the last five years sent to me. In March last year Peter accused me of dishonesty, because council members would not admit to having spoken to me about Maxine White, when in fact five members had spoken to me, and not one could provide details of the so called investigation which failed to contact Maxine herself. Peter has always been aware that I talk to chiropractors about regulatory matters and he has encouraged me to continue.

On 27 September 2007 in response to that very point he wrote “You are right people need advice they can trust and these are the sort of things that I need to discuss with you. I am sure we can establish a mechanism for achieving communication without there being a problem from the GCC’s point of view and to talk it through will be very useful, I look forward to talking to you later.” We did and that’s why I did not volunteer for the IC or PCC. Would it have been better to divulge concerns about council covertly as others have done? In fact Tony Metcalf showed so little interest in what I was telling him I suspect he knew already what had been said at the meeting. In my opinion, Margaret and Peter are using data protection and confidentiality as tools to hide a dereliction of duty of management. An example of this is from March last year when Peter wanted a statement about Greg Price “being forced to resign for posting messages on anti chiropractic websites. But still getting a reference and landing a job at another regulatory body.” removed from the internet. However, Peter quoted confidentiality and data protection despite the fact it was common knowledge. There was no concern there for members of the public complaining to UKCP’s, another regulatory body which is also a registered charity, and like the GCC could be at risk from Price.

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