Letter from Peter Dixon today telling me Peter has decided that the GCC will not participate in the conference on June 7th. As far as Peter is concerned the GCC provides regular updates to the profession via the “our Newsletter and website”. He goes on to say “the GCC will be running workshops across the UK during October and November this year as part of the consultation and Peter will be available then to respond to questions that participants have about any aspect of the GCC’s activities. I sent the invitation to all council members and invited four speakers to speak on "Regulatory reform" in relation to !) Greater Patient participation, 2) Transparency, and 3) Fitness to practice. I asked for people to speak who during my time on council had worked hard to reform the GCC. The difference between us was they had faith in the process, I did not. I believe the decision not to attend is something Margaret and Peter have decided and they have not consulted council members. This is how the GCC opperates and most of the time council members are kept in the dark about whats going on ( very like Sir Humphrey in yes Minister and Margaret is Sir Humphrey)They know feelings are high and hope by November apathy will again reign and few will attend their workshops. The Council members I hoped would speak are people with integrity and I knew they would not mislead the profession to make Margaret and Peter look better. Last year when I was talking to the Department of Health and was asking them who the GCC were accountable too, they explained, that if the GCC did something wrong you always had judicial review to keep them honest. Yes at £200,000,I have contacted them again to see if they have any suggestion on where I could get the money to appeal To be fair Peter has a lot on at the moment it cant be easy convincing everyone that Margaret is a wonderful Chief Executive,
Peter Dixon will not be held accountable to former members of council
Richard Lanigan
Richard Lanigan DC.BSc (Chiro) MSc( Health Promotion) was born in North London 1957 of Irish Parents and was educated in Ireland. Originally trained as a PE teacher, he moved to Denmark 1979, where a serious knee injury got him interested in rehabilitation and training methods. Richard founded Denmarks premier fitness centre "Sweat Shop" in 1982 and travelled all over the world to find how best to prepare athletes for competition. In 1984 he became fitness and rehab consultant to the Danish national badminton teams, handball teams and many football club sides. This approach to optimal performance is normal in 2010, however back in the early 80s it was very revolutionary, when stretching was limited to putting on your socks and knee injuries were immobilised for months in plaster.
Richard developed rehabilitation and fitness programmes for many of Denmark’s top athletes including Kirsten Larsten and Ib Frederickson, all England singles badminton champions in late 80s. "Team Denmark" hired him and his facilities to help prepare many of Denmarks athletes for the LA and Seoul Olympics. In 1990 he worked with Anya Anderson, Olympic gold medallist and voted worlds best female handball player at the Atlanta Olympics.
Richard advised Copenhagen’s main teaching (Rigs) Hospital on starting their rehab facility in 1984. In the same year he started working with Denmarks leading chiropractor; Ole Wessung DC, who demonstrated the effectiveness of Chiropractic in improving athletic performance, so impressed was Richard that in 1990 he moved back to England to study chiropractic at Anglo European College of Chiropractic and was student president for two years between 1993-1995.
Richard was awarded a fellowship by the College of Chiropractors in 2008, however in January 2009 Richard chose to stop using the title chiropractor in the UK because the British regulatory body for chiropractic (The GCC) had not maintained international standards of chiropractic education in the UK and including prescribing medicines in the chiropractic scope of practice, a fig leaf for incompetent UK chiropractors to hide behind. Richard has another clinic in Dublin and is a member of the Chiropractic Association of Ireland and the European Chiropractic Union.
Richard has four children Eloise aged 3, Molly and Isabelle aged five and the eldest Frederik aged twenty one is pursuing a career as a professional tennis player and has represented Norway in the Davis Cup in 2006 & 2007. None of Richards children have ever taken any medicine, www.vaccination.co.uk they eat healthy food, take lots of exercise and have their spines checked every month, www.familychiropractic.co.uk
Richard has had much experience working in the Cuban health service where Doctors are keen to incorporate drug free interventions (acupuncture and chiropractic) and prevention in their health care programmes www.henryreevebrigade.org
