General Medical Council Avis 

This is my story.

In May 2022, we decided to contacted the GMC to raise our concerns about the lack of care my late father, had received from two GP’s. He was a high priority patient. My father sadly died in January 2022 after receiving a missed diagnosis of oesophageal cancer/fungal infection despite one of the GP’s suspecting it may be cancer.

We watched him slowly starve to death. My father had telephone consultations with one of the GPs on 30 September 2021 and 25 October 2021, and with the other GP on 19 October 2021. Both GPs failed to assess him in person and when he pleaded with them to see someone as he couldn’t take it anymore one of the GP’s told him to pick up a letter from the surgery the next day to take to the hospital.

The surgeries lame excuse for not seeing patients was because they were following the covid protocol. The excuse came after the prime minister announced that surgeries/gp’s were to start seeing patients face to face. On subsequent discharge from hospital, the patient had renal damage due to dehydration, which we feel was related to the GPs not seeing him in person in September/October 2021

Not being seen in person for 31 days caused additional problems with his illness; because over that time his fluid intake was now none existence. From when I saw my father on the 31st August when his eating problem started till, he was finally admitted into hospital on the 26th October 2022. He had gone nearly nine weeks without proper food and finally fluid and had lost a lot of weight.

“With no food/water, the maximum time the body can survive is thought to be about one week that’s with water only, but no food, survival time may extend up to 2 to 3 months. Over time, a severely restricted food intake can reduce the lifespan”.

My concerns went to a rule 12 and they have been unable to identify any potential flaws with the two doctors, and are satisfied that the decision and they could not fault the doctor’s approach and concluded that there is nothing to suggest that the decision may be materially flawed and this ground for a review is not met.

The expert concluded that there were no concerns about the care that the two GPs provided to the patient.

So, it is ok to harm or kill some one thru neglect and get away with it and these are the people who have Harold Shipman his licence back.

The GMC have closed ranks on the doctors concerned, just like lawyers do.

I am very much a believer in karma and I hope both the doctors and their family’s stuffer the same agonising fate as my father.

Not fit for purpose. Needs a complete radical shake up.
Appalling at every level.
No idea just how serious a case needs to be for the GMC to act

Breach of Confidentiality....the GMC has just told me it's okay for a Doctor to breach confidentiality despite their website saying they take it very seriously and undertake disciplinary procedures on the offending Doctor. They said that 'in the bigger picture' it's not worth putting 2 doctors on a fitness to practice...! It took them 6 weeks to come up with such crap and allow 2 doctors to humiliate me and get away with it...

Anyone member of the public as a patient or family of a deceased patient in our families case be prepared to be fully let down by this organisation, after being warned against even contacting the GMC from GPS themselves, informing us that the system is corrupt & is on the side of the medical practitioners “regardless” I still thought I would try, after speaking to a very helpful polite administrator at the start or case handler it seemed quite positive overall, after the GMC receiving my late fathers medical records & the fact that many practitioners at his surgery failed to send him for further investigations due to his symptoms & follow the NICE referral pathway the GMC came back with a response of the fact the GPS should of done investigations BUT it was not down to an individual doctor to refer on but an organisation, in the modern world I live in it is my practice that refer me to the specialist, in my fathers case the fact that so many GPS had failed to do just that they were unable to find them all accountable & that was the most straight forward cop out for the GMC, getting them to address one doctor under one roof is hard enough so we had no chance with 5 doctors. Thankfully the CQC went in & did their job appropriately & found the practice to be breaching regulations, not acting on safety alerts & not diagnosing serious illnesses so they are now on the radar of the CQC, with a rating or requiring improvement, the GMC were also unwilling to look at certain lengths of time frames for the lack of duty of care & would only consider a matter of weeks of not acting on serious symptoms not the years that were actually missed. Money talks. The GPs prescription fee.

Harold shipman procedures still ongoing.GMC is a run for doctors not patients.! GMC work for Pharmaceutical industry uses patients for clinical trials.

St Pauls way medical practice caused my brothers death. I don't like the way my late brother Jimmy McGovern was treated by your practice of doctors that treated him as a drug addict even though he was on methadone for 2 years, consequently your undecisive practice never agreed to give him the appropriate pain killers and left him without any pain killers for serious back problems with pain that pushed my brother to the edge! You even prescribed him Laxatol and other laxatives that gives you more pain/spasms whilsted he had constant diarrhea. Your practice let him die, whilst house bound in agony with serious back problems incl spine degeneration and Kidney stones!

GMC corrupt for government

Made complaint about inadequate care of my brother who wasn't prescribed medication for spinal degeneration left to die without medication because doctor Agarwal and patient assistant are only bothered about being a Muslim and not the patient! GMC made their doctors at St pauls way medical centre look good mentioning a medication for treating pain for spinal degeneration when there was no mention of it and ignoring my further info about this doctor when taking complaint further on level 2 complaints appeal they used pre judgement to close the case. GMC are for doctors not the patients,their don't care about, it's a clinical profession not professional organisation and that suits the government!

This organisation has proven to be opposed to doctors, presuming guilt before an ounce of investigation. This appears to be particularly true when it comes to ethnic minority doctors - there are a number of recent cases highlighting this. Not to mention the paper that has investigated and found that ethnic minority doctors seem to face harsher consequences than European doctors.

And then their extortionate fees that they mandate doctors must pay every year, with no accountability or explanation as to where the money goes or why doctors must pay.

I have written and given plenty of information to the GMC regarding doctors who gave incorrect information in their reports. The have asked me to get the doctors first names and GMC numbers. These are difficult to find due to doctors wanting to keep their privacy. All it would take would be a couple of phone calls and emails from the GMC to get the information they require. I’m completely exasperated.

Dealing with the GMC has been truly Kafkaesque endeavour. Despite the cheerful outward appearance GMC rep that came to talk to me in my Foundation Year placement, the reality is a faceless, indifferent bureaucracy.

My interactions with the GMC give me nothing but anxiety, to the point that they have been a significant part of my decision to leave medical practice for good. Nearly 2 years dealing with them over an issue has been traumatic, nightmarish, and soul destroying, because there is simply a lack of any humanity in their processes.

If you have the misfortune to have to interact with them, be prepared to become a case number, and object of scrutiny, a subject of documentation. You will be judged by a system that simply does not care about you.

My advise: if you value your sanity, and want to avoid a world of pain, leave the GMC out of your life.

I wish there could be zero stars. Such a pathetic website with pathetic handlers. The staff of GMC has no concerns with anyone’s efforts or feelings, they say sorry and that’s it.

Awful system that is against you from the offshoot.

Unless you have absolute undeniable evidence (think about that for a moment..who are they going to believe? A person who can guarantee your passport or Joe average?) Its a system that's geared against the common man. I had a Dr refuse to give me his GMC Number. Telling me " He can look it up online" . He simply could have given it, its was clearly a power move and another example on how egomaniacal these Drs are. GMC really is a pointless endeavour. And thoroughly biased against us.

These do not appear to be issues we can assist you with’ is what thes GMC wrote when I sent 32 pages of proof of discrimination and medical gaslighting.

A Sheffield surgeon ended my care with the whole Dept when I got a 2nd opinion which the GMC says you can do (no. 16e) AND this was after a complication after surgery.

I sent a letter, date 14.11.18 from Mr Chapple before he knew about the 2nd opinion which said

‘Mr Chapple or another clinician would be more than happy to find a solution to your problems',

I sent email from his secretary 20.1.20 which said she was going to contact the surgeon I’d got a 2nd opinion from and I sent the letter I received from Mr Chapple on 20.3.20 after his secretary had contacted this surgeon which said

‘It was agreed there were no further surgical treatment the colorectal department could offer you. It was also discussed that the therapeutic relationship that exists between yourself and the surgical specialists involved in your care had completely broken down’

The GMC says Dr’s must ‘never discriminate unfairly against patients’. Also they have rules when a Dr can end a r.ship (abuse, theft) and what he must do (warn patient first) but this surgeon didn’t follow ANY of the rules and I evidenced it.

I also sent a 11 page letter about medical gaslighting from this Dr + proof e.g. a letter from Mr Chapple 21.9.18 said

‘I arranged for repeat ano-rectal manometry which was performed on 23.7.18. This shows reduced pressures compared to the previous manometry’

A letter on 29.4.19 said ‘she has a number of psychological issues which are influencing the perception of the severity of her symptoms’

I couldn’t understand how he could see my symptoms had gone worse and say the problem was psychological but I now know it’s medical gaslighting, it’s dismissing the facts and lying that the patient has psychological problems and using that to not help the targeted patient and it is a form of emotional abuse and caused me A LOT of distress.

I sent the GMC 5 letters I got from Mr Chapple, the 21.2.19 letter said ‘further physical treatments should not be offered until your psychological issues have been addressed. The 8.5.19 letter said ‘your psychological problems need to be addressed and that until that time it would not be appropriate to refer you for further ano rectal investigations’ I sent questions in Feb, Mar, Apr and May 2019 but Mr Chapple on 21.5.19 said ‘we are unable to provide you with any further information and. . . continued correspondence with you would not be beneficial . . . . .further emails we receive from you will be filed and not responded to’.

He used the gaslighting to refuse me treatment, a diagnostic test and answers

I sent the GMC 10 pages of GP records to show I didn’t have psychological problems + Mr Chapple knew it. E.g. on 24.5.18 I asked for a referral to a dept to discuss the complication, on 1.10.18 my GP wrote she has done a lot of research into NICE guidance, on 23.7.19 my GP wrote we chatted about Vitamin C for wounds. My GP talked to Mr Chapple about me on 30.8.18 so he would have known this. In July I emailed Mr Chapple about some tests + on 3.8.18 he himself wrote to me about these, I sent the GMC 2 emails I sent Mr Chapple in Oct 2019 and Feb 2020 about using the NHS guide for wounds + supplements but the GMC still didn’t ask him why he was saying I had psychological problems and stopping my help when it didn’t look like I did.

A Guardian article ‘Rogue doctors ‘use superhero status to abuse patients’ says ‘It took 9 years before concerns raised about him finally led to his suspension by the GMC.”Him being the breast surgeon Ian Paterson who carried out unnecessary operations over 14 years .

All I can say is the GMC haven’t changed because even with evidence they do nothing.

I’ve written SEVERAL times with my allegations of malpractice from my medical centre who withheld my medication and have victimised me.

Have written to their London, Manchester and Edinburgh addresses. THEY IGNORED ALL LETTERS. People online say they ALSO ignore emails.

Why do they exist if they serve ZERO purpose? If the government fund them, it’s time the government removed their funding and install ANOTHER body to help us.

ZERO STARS

As a doctor I have to say the GMC is a completely fraudulent and racist institution.
No actual value offered to patients and medical personnel. We pay annual fees to fund the operation and if you dont you can not practice. So many lives and careers destroyed
Extortion operation should be investigated and closed down

Wrote to these jokers regarding my care and the shocking treatment a doctor gave me, and guess what they said he had done nothing wrong 😂

What a corrupt organisation just like this government corruption through and through

bug in the system, impossible to register

Staff were mostly courteous over the phone and also in person so I have given one star. However, with regards to systems, processes and accountability, the GMC appear unable or unwilling to help patients and their families. Even when their investigation is concluded and a GP has been found, by their own experts, to deliver care below the expected standard, nothing is done to address the problem. Nothing. GMC purport to not have the powers or authority to do anything regardless of outcome so what is the point of their existence? All we wanted was an apology from the GP. People make mistakes - even huge life or death ones. The GP in question didn't even comment on the final report. Arrogance. Whereas at least the GPs fellow colleagues had the courtesy to offer what could be very loosely construed as an apology to a grieving family in shock. It appears that GPs found to be delivering poor care are beyond reproach and the GPs know it. We provided a list of witnesses and not one was contacted to help confirm or contest the complaint. GMC experts were the only people contacted. The investigation itself took a year. This is a long, drawn out process, quite possibly to limit and deter any potential escalation to the Public Health Service Ombudsman (equally as useless). Should the PHSO go through the motions of reviewing a GMC complaint, they will ultimately say the complaint is outside of their timeline and so no further action can be taken. It feels like the GMC, PHSO, CQC, Healthwatch and Health Education England are all covering each other's weaknesses. GMC impartiality is highly questionable and it seems that no action taken is 100% guaranteed. NHS England, were on the other hand, far more proactive and open to addressing mistakes and actioning improvements.

The answer is in the question - who regulates the GMC? ANSWER- Themselves! It is run by Doctors who cannot 'Doctor' and so do admin on a quest to break the vulnerable patients and support the Dr Shipman's of this world. They claim to work to ethics when it suits and then break them again when it suits. Anything which suits them at their next coffee break is your answer to your heartbreaking complaint and concerns for your health and others. How do they sleep at night? I guess they count their gold coins under the bed gained from unscrupulous work....

They seem to side with the registered doctor with no consideration given to that of the complainant; a 'professional' can do/say what they like.

I don't understand why they publish guidelines by which these people should practice.

I cannot conceive how people are allowed to state they are GMC registered 'doctor's'when there's no record of them on the GMC records online. The dvla have no professional medical staff working in their department but only employed to wreck peoples working lives and others that state they're GMC registered qualified doctors on their 'honorary state medical team' who are recruited via facebook completing only what can be described as a pub quiz. It's time the Department of Transport and the GMC check all records to stop these unqualified 'doctors' making up peoples non existent health issues, overruling and wasting time of genuine GMC registered qualified hard working Doctor's and Medical Professionals. Unqualified people stating they're 'doctor's' can kill and need to be stopped from this malpractice.