UK: PRIVATE EYE 5th April 2012 - GMC Panel Beating

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From: Jackie Fletcher <jackie.fletcher@...>

PRIVATE EYE No 1310

5th April 2012

GMC Panel Beating

The high court has ruled that one of the country's leading paediatric

gastroenterologists, Professor -, was unlawfully struck

off over the MMR controversy.

The judgment was damning of the General Medical Council (GMC), finding

its proceedings " flawed " , its reasoning " inadequate and

superficial " and in some respects its conclusions " wrong "

and " unjustified " and in one case

" perverse " .

Prof. - had been found guilty alongside Dr Wakefield

and Prof. Simon Murch of carrying out unethical research, during which

some children, the GMC panel ruled, had been put through unnecessary

invasive tests under the guise of clinical investigations. Prof.

- and Dr Wakefield were found guilty of serious professional

misconduct and struck off the medical register. Murch was censured for

" errors of judgment " but allowed to continue to practise

because he had acted in good faith.

Upholding -'s appeal, Mr Justice Mitting said it was in the

clinical issues surrounding the individual children that the " most

significant inadequacies and errors " by the GMC occurred. He said:

" in no individual case in which the panel made a finding adverse to

Prof. - did it address the expert evidence led for him, except

to mis-state it. Universal inadequacies and some errors in the panel's

determination accordingly go to the heart of the case. They are not

curable. "

The doctors' case before the GMC was that their paper, printed in the

Lancet in 1998, reflected their findings of gut disease in autistic

children who had all been consecutively referred for diagnosis and

treatment - not for research.

In order for the GMC charges to stand, the panel had to prove that the

children were actually admitted to the hospital for a research project,

172-96, which was not approved and was designed to look specifically for

a link between measles vaccine and degenerative disorder - not for

diagnosis and treatment.

Listing " facts negating " the GMC proposition, Mr Justice

Mitting said none of the five clinicians who gave evidence considered

they were following that research project; none of the children fitted

its criteria; parental consent had been obtained for diagnostic tests;

Prof. - had made written and verbal statements prior to the

Lancet paper that the investigations were clinical; and he had no

rational motive to begin research before it was approved. Also,

investigations into all the children were followed by discharge letters

with a diagnosis and recommendation for treatment. In some cases the

treatment produced a marked improvement in gastrointestinal symptoms and

behaviour.

The Judge said these and other factors should have been considered by the

panel, and that if it did consider them, some explanation for rejecting

them should have been given.

The GMC, which acknowledged that its reasoning was inadequate but had

argued the findings were fair in light of the evidence, is not

challenging the ruling and has restored Prof. - to the medical

register.

Prof. -'s appeal was supported by the parents of many of the

children seen by him at the Royal Free hospital in north London (See

letters, Eye 1256).

Legal experts suggest that the criticisms of the GMC must impact upon

some of its findings against the other two doctors - in particular Prof.

Murch, who had been cleared by the panel of serious misconduct and found

to be far less culpable. (Dr Wakefield faced other charges). But the GMC

said the ruling relates " only to Professor - and his

Fitness To Practice hearing. The other two doctors did not appeal and

there is nothing in the judgment that affects the decision in their

cases. "

As to the ensuing MMR scare following publication of the Lancet paper,

the judge said: " There is now no respectable body of opinion which

supports Dr Wakefield's hypothesis, that MMR vaccine and

autism/enterocolitis are causally linked. "

Sheri Nakken, former R.N., MA, Hahnemannian

Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Washington State, USA

Vaccines -

http://vaccinationdangers.wordpress.com/ Homeopathy

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