I am not sure exactly when I begin to take “collective responsibility” for the failings of the GCC. So in the mean time I will keep chipping away at the cheap veneer they use to create the image of competence and openness, requirements of the Nolan Principles the GCC refers to so often. The new Fitness to Practise report has just been published by the GCC( in news on their home page) A few justifable convictions, but mostly cases of chiropractors making a small error and someone taking a sledge hammer to crack a little nut.
Then there is the advice on how to avoid Margaret Coats knock on the door. Every week a patient tells me how a GP has said not to visit a chiropractor because its dangerous. Heaven help the chiropractor who tells a patient its a waste of time going to a GP with back ache, or their functional orthodontics may cause headaches. A few years ago I wrote to 62 GP surgeries to find out what advice they would give a patient with a back problem who had not returned to normal activities after 8 weeks. Only one advised “spinal manipulation” the rest stronger painkillers and NSAID’s. Surely it’s the right thing to tell our patients to stop taking painkillers. We have to keep re-assessing patients to see if they are benefiting from chiropractic care if the patient is doped up to the eyeballs on medicinal marijuana, they may be thinking chiropractic is making the pain go away and its the dope. Has it changed or does GCC chiropractic care now involve the use of drugs and surgery. The drugs most abused by teenagers in the US are found in medicine cabinets in the home. My children have not had so much as a spoonful of calpol. Should I provide different advice to my patients than I would give my own children??
The main lesson the GCC seemed to have learned from last years Report besides not trying to slip in false figures as happened in case Z( our good friend Rod McMillan) £27,642 instead of £98,000. This year they deal with the problem by providing no figures and no details of cases “not proven”. They will probably say they knew the information had been provided to the profession in my news letter regarding the cases against Monica Handa, Luke Nitschke and Desmond Pim, 50 years in practice and he still cannot believe what happened to him. June 26/2007 The GCC responded Today I got my answer to my question under the freedom of information act. At the GCC meeting on January 10 the council agreed to reduce the cost borne in relation to producing the fitness to practise report FTP and to produce a shorter report. The report was shortened by not duplicating in the FTP report data and information that is published in the annual report ( which is not sent out to the profession). Therefore the FTP report for this latest period does not report on the investigating committee nor does it include costs.
