This was one of the First posts on the Chiropractic UK forums posted by a practitioner who decided not to go on the register and was harassed by investigators on behalf of the GCC. I was to experience the same harassment myself in 2009. Which the GCC tried to cover up.
“After I decided not to register with the GCC I went to great lengths to ensure that I was compliant with the requirements of the Chiropractor’s Act, even going so far as to write to the Registrar to seek clarification and guidance. Unfortunately, now on 2 occasions ‘someone’ has tried to trap me into saying/acting as if I were still a chiropractor: WHY?
I list the details below…
Yesterday afternoon, there was a knock on the door. My younger daughter answered it. There was a man delivering a parcel so she went and got me. I came to the door and saw a shabbily dressed man in his late 60s and parked in front of my house was an equally shabby, old Volvo estate, obviously his vehicle. This man held some publicity material with HSA written on it in his left hand and in the other he held a delivery note which he wanted me to sign. Upon being asked what it was he replied ‘The HSA used to send this material by post but are now getting them hand delivered.’ and as he was saying this I read the delivery note.
Right at the top were the words FOR CHIROPRACTORS in black capitals and below it was my name with the incorrect postnominals DC etc and various other bits and pieces which I wish I had read, but didn’t. As soon as I saw the wording I retorted ‘But I am not a chiropractor!’ to which he asked ‘But are you this person?’ and I reiterated, very harshly this time, ‘But I am NOT a chiropractor!’, gave him back the delivery note and shut the door in his face. He left.
It was only later whilst telling this story to a friend that I realised what a close encounter I had had – delivery men are not usually in their late 60s driving shabby cars, they tend to be younger men on bikes or vans with a clipboard & computerised delivery notes, definitely not word processed sheets with the words FOR CHIROPRACTORS printed on them.
Should I have absent mindedly signed for this without reading the delivery note carefully, I would have been culpable as I would have accepted something that was FOR
CHIROPRACTORS only, and the extension would have been that I was trading as a Chiropractor, otherwise why would I accept parcels that are FOR CHIROPRACTORS only…???? I guess should my 16yr old have erroneously signed for it, I might have been able to argue a minor’s ignorance, but I still fear I would have had to spend a night at Her Majesty’s pleasure…I am still skaking from this realisation. Since my decision not to register with the GCC, there has never been ANY attempt on my part to trade as a chiropractor or to mislead the public in any way.
As confirmation of this ploy and to reassure myself that I was not being paranoid, I rang the HSA this morning and they told me that they ALWAYS use the postal service to deliver mail and NEVER a courier, a direct confirmation that this had indeed been an attempt at entrapment at its worst. The HSA were concerned that they were being used as bait and also suggested that I go to the Police – I am considering this option.
This is the 2nd time someone has tried to trap me: several months ago, I got a phone call from a woman claiming to be from a ‘government agency’ that was doing a survey to find out how Chiropractors’ fees had risen in line with inflation. When I said ‘But I am not a chiropractor, why are you calling me?’ the phone went dead. On checking I found that the no. had been withheld Can anyone think of any ‘govt agency’ that would remotely be interested in such matters??? I can’t.
Of course those who are blatantly flaunting the law should get prosecuted but what about those who are not doing so? The problem is that the GCC are using deceit to trap those who have not registered and are NOT calling themselves chiros. Why are shabby men in their 60s hand delivering packages from the agencies who claim they never use private delivery companies, trying to hood wink us into signing as ‘chiros’?? The GCC claim it is not what we call ourselves that matters, it is the public’s perception of us that is crucial. So if I wear a red jumper and you see it as black, am I to be held responsible for this? In the same way, if I call myself Spinal Manipulator and the patient sees me as a chiro because of their own mindset, why should I be held responsible? What about those chiros who have been in practice for 20yrs and then decide they no longer want to register: how are they going to convince their existing patients that they are no longer chiros? So the GCC will now prosecute these people for ‘misleading the public’, will it?. The stupidity of this situation belies belief…the GCC should instead concentrate on doing what it claims its remit is: to protect the public. It should leave honest law abiding practitioners alone to earn a living – other regulators do so. The accountants, physios, lawyers – all have regulators but those who are not registered, are still allowed to earn a living and are not continuously looking over their shoulder frightened of the being a victime of a witchhunt.
Can anyone explain to me why honest hard working law abiding practitioners like myself are being hounded in such a way? Who is master minding this and why?
Shanti was lucky, she got an answer from “Cognito”; who we now know was deputy Registrar Greg Price who was gathering information on dissenting chiropractors by posing as a chiropractor on internet forums at 11.28 am on the 31st of October 2006 Cognito wrote
Sounds to me like you have a bad case of paranoia… or a guilty conscience. Price had to resign from the GCC in 2006 after posting obscene messages about me on the forums, while at the same time claiming he and Margaret Coats had been defamed on the forums
