The General Chiropractic Council (GCC), the chiropractic regulator in the UK have hired Private investigators to try and find evidence to present to the police and have me arrested for practising chiropractic without a “medipractor” licence from Margaret Coats and Peter Dixon DC the GCC management. After I left the register in January 2009, private investigators were calling every day and came into the clinic a number of times posing as patients in an attempt to entrap me into saying I was a chiropractor. A number of AECC graduates have been convicted.
The PIs stand out because they were not really interested in chiropractic care and kept asking if I was a chiropractor. The GCC were forced to admit instructing private investigators by the freedom of information act. The investigation was ordered by Chief executive Margaret Coats, she is refusing to say why she ordered the investigation, and what the investigation uncovered if anything. This is a breech of the Data protection The have to release this information and I have complained to the “Information Commissioners Office” and they have almost completed their investigation and I am confident they will find against the GCC.
I have a practise in Ireland and am a member of Irish Chiropractic association, which has higher chiropractic requirements for membership than the General Chiropractic Council. (The GCC has accredited the MacTimoney school in the UK which is not recognised by any chiropractic organisation outside of the UK. When MacTimoney was under threat from the British Chiropractic Association, the MacTimoney leadership (Christina’s old Girls Club) began using the term “we correct subluxations” and professing their love of BJ Palmer. They then presented their enemies as anti subluxation chiropractic rather than anti “part time courses to train chiropractors” , chiropractors like me trusted and supported Christina Cunliffs efforts towards international accreditation.
Margaret Coats et al do not like me calling myself a “Spinal Health Care Practitioner” with my chiropractic qualifications from AECC on the wall. I have been practising in Kingston since 1996 people are not going to stop calling me a chiropractor because I am not on Coats register so she would like to have a tape, if I ever let the C word slip out to a patient and the worrying thing about all this is that sometimes you forget, that there are these “bottomholes” in the world trying to screw you over.
I contacted the GCC to establish what rights visiting chiropractors have in the UK while they are here, and define the boundaries within which I can practise in the UK without breaking the law. It would appear that when BJ Palmer visited the UK, had Margaret Coats been GCC registrar at the time, it would have been at her discretion, whether to report him to the police for calling himself a chiropractor and adjusting afew people he met in his hotel. You can see below how difficult it was to get a straight answer from the GCC to my questions (see e-mails below).
I will always remember my first day as an elected member of the GCC in June 2007. Margaret Coats was showing new members around the building when Marc Cashley asks her do you have a First Aid room and she takes us there. The room had a sign on the door; COATS we thought it was her office, in fact the room was for visitors to leave bagage, we joked it would have been the ideal place to leave her. Marc asks Coats why does it not have an adjusting bench in it. To which she replies; what for?
Marc says chiropractors like to get adjusted when they have been sitting at meetings all day. To which she answered to our amazement; Its not allowed unless you are going to take a full medical history and examination. Apparently its contrary to the GCC code of practise to treat another chiropractor without taking a full history and medical examination. We all though this was hilarious and for the rest of the day we made jokes about how we could not adjust each other covertly and how a chiropractor with a sports team would have to hold the game up to take everybody’s medical history each time they got adjusted. Today it does not seem so funny.
Think about this, the GCC were happy to accredit MacTimoney college and there is nothing to stop the GCC accrediting physiotherapist schools as chiropractic. The new NICE guidelines are very favourable for spinal manipulation for back pain and there are not enough practitioners in the UK who perform spinal manipulation. In February the GCC appointed a registered physiotherapist Graham Pope as chairman of its Education Standards committee.His deputy is medical doctor Chris Stephens. The chiropractic profession no longer has any say on who is appointed to its regulatory body, in effect the UK profession has handed its future over to the Medipractor Council and while I left the register kicking and screaming, most UK chiropractors have gone along with this farce, because resigning means; Not a chiropractor, harassment, having to pay 17.5% extra tax and insurance companies will only cover care from registered medipractors/medipractors.
The ultimate insult from these medipractors on the General Chiropractic Council, is that for me to advertise that I correct subluxations could be interpreted as implying that I am a chiropractor and grounds to have me arrested in the UK . They have done this to many of the original principled MacTimoney practitioners, good friends of mine like Tony Gilmore, who saw the medical route the GCC was talking them and resigned, only them to be told by Cunliffe and Coats they were not allowed call themselves MacTimoney practitioners, because MacTimoney was now synonymous with chiropractic in the UK and they were not on the register, some who refused were arrested and charged. This despite the fact MacTimoney graduates are retraining at the Anglo Eoropean College of Chiropractic at this moment, because they did not realise when enrolling that they would not be able to work as a chiropractor outside the UK with this qualification.
From: Richard Lanigan [mailto:richard@familychiropractic.co.uk]
Sent: 14 April 2009 23:35
To: Jamie Button ( GCC regulations Officer)
Subject: RE: Removal from the Register
Dear Jamie,
I am told section 32 of the chiropractic act has been amended with regard to chiropractors who practice and are recognised as chiropractors in other EU countries could you clarify any changes for me please.
Yours sincerely
Richard Lanigan
From: Beatrice Armstrong [mailto:b.armstrong@gcc-uk.org]
Sent: 16 April 2009 09:42
To: Richard Lanigan
Subject: FW: Removal from the Register
Hello there
I have passed your enquiry about the FOI request to my colleague Paul who will contact you shortly.
I have also checked the legislation and there has been no change to section 32 of the Chiropractors Act.
Kind Regards
Beatrice Armstrong
Registrations Officer
From: Richard Lanigan [mailto:richard@familychiropractic.co.uk]
Sent: 16 April 2009 10:58
To: Beatrice Armstrong
Subject: RE: Removal from the Register
Hi Beatrice,
It may not be in the Act.
Can you tell me, what is the legal position for chiropractors who are recognised as chiropractors in other EU countries or the US and enter the UK. Are they in breach of section 32 if they call themselves chiropractors while they are here?
Could you also ask Paul to add to my Freedom of Information request; How many practitioners has the GCC investigated for breach of section 32 of the chiropractic act and are these practitioners still being monitored by the GCC.
Richard
From: Jamie Button [mailto:j.button@gcc-uk.org]
Sent: 21 April 2009 14:44
To: Richard Lanigan
Subject: FW: Removal from the Register
Mr Lanigan – Thank you for your email.
The legal position for chiropractors who are recognised as chiropractors in other EU countries or the US and who come to the UK to practise.
I can confirm that, irrespective of where they are from, anyone who wishes to use the title of chiropractor, whether expressly or by implication, must first of all be registered with the GCC. Should someone not have achieved registration before referring to themselves as a chiropractor then they would be in breach of Section 32(1) of the Chiropractors Act, 1994.
Should you have any further questions please feel free to contact me.
Jamie Button
Registrations
From: Richard Lanigan [mailto:richard@familychiropractic.co.uk]
Sent: 21 April 2009 23:13
To: Jamie Button
Subject: RE: Removal from the Register
Hi Jamie,
Thanks for that. I did not say anything about them practising as it is not stated in the act. I asked “what is the legal position for chiropractors who are recognised as chiropractors in other EU countries or the US and enter the UK. Are they in breach of section 32 if they call themselves chiropractors while they are here? For example someone who is giving a lecture are they allowed call themselves Chiropractor, what if they adjusted another guest at the hotel they were staying at. Would they be reported to the police by the GCC.
Richard
From: Margaret Coats [mailto:m.coats@gcc-uk.org]
Sent: 24 April 2009 11:06
To: Richard Lanigan
Subject: RE: Removal from the Register
Dear Mr Lanigan
Thank you for your enquiry. It is difficult to provide a definitive answer, since circumstances will vary. For example, in relation to chiropractors who enter the UK as part of the healthcare teams that support athletes participating in European/International events, the General Council took the view some time ago that if treatment was confined to those athletes within the confines of the sporting venue, then it was unlikely that a report would be made to the police. The rationale was that there would be no ‘public interest’ basis for a prosecution.
Other than this, I am unable to be of assistance.
Yours sincerely
Margaret Coats
From: Richard Lanigan [mailto:richard@familychiropractic.co.uk]
Sent: 24 April 2009 12:11
To: Margaret Coats
Subject: RE: Removal from the Register
Dear Margaret,
Its been a while.
I did not ask about chiropractors as part of a sports team. I specifically asked about a chiropractor giving a lecture in the UK.
So as registrar of the GCC can you please tell me if these chiropractors are allowed call themselves Chiropractors while in the UK and would you feel there was a “public Interest” basis for prosecution were they to for example treat/adjust, another guest at the hotel they were staying, because I notice you do say the sports chiropractors should confine themselves to those athletes within the confines of the sporting venue.
Richard
From: Margaret Coats [mailto:m.coats@gcc-uk.org]
Sent: 24 April 2009 14:29
To: Richard Lanigan
Subject: RE: Removal from the Register
Dear Mr Lanigan
Again, I can only say that it’s difficult to provide a definitive answer. If first-hand evidence of the example that you provide came to the attention of the GCC, we would take advice on how to proceed.
Yours sincerely
Margaret Coats
Chief Executive & Registrar
From: Richard Lanigan
Sent: 27 April 2009 03:10
To: ‘Margaret Coats’
Subject: RE: Removal from the Register
Dear Margaret,
How could I have ever called you a xxxxx? you are incapable of giving a straight answer.
In case your investigators are trying to find out. I practise as a chiropractor in Ireland Wednesday afternoon, Thursday, and Friday mornings, all calls to my Kingston clinic are diverted to Ireland on those days. I have a registered chiropractor who covers for me when needed in Kingston.
An AECC grad will be starting full time in August, they are much more competent than those MacTimoneys you have on your register.
The investigator you sent in three weeks ago may as well have had PI written on his forehead. Genuine patients would not spend 30 minutes asking the receptionist, if I am a chiropractor. Patients want the best practitioner, be they osteopath, physio, Chiropractor or spinal health care practitioner and I have the best qualifications and CV in this area.
Every one of my active patients know I am not on your register and your investigators are more than welcome to come into my clinic and ask them any time. Assuming your investigation is not personal and you are genuinely concerned and believe that my patients are at risk because I have implied to them that I am still a chiropractor in the UK.
Richard