Clare Gerada appointed to gross negligence manslaughter review GMC expert panel

Former RCGP chair named in GMC manslaughter review panel

By Nick Bostock on the 21 May 2018

"Former RCGP chair Professor Clare Gerada has been named in an expert panel set up by the GMC to review gross negligence manslaughter (GNM) in healthcare following the Bawa-Garba case.

"Terms of reference for the independent review commissioned by the GMC - to be led by orthopaedic surgeon and former Royal College of Physicians president Dame Clare Marx - were announced in March.

"The review will consider whether GNM cases properly take account of the role system pressures can play in cases when patients die, and look at how GMC guidance and communication around reflective practice could be improved. It will look at what happens after a fatal incident; the impact of criminal investigations; inquiries by a coroner, procurator fiscal or sheriff; and the regulatory process and GMC fitness to practise procedures.

"The equivalent offence of culpable homicide in Scotland will be scrutinised by the review; along with findings of the Williams Review on GNM in healthcare announced by health and social care secretary Jeremy Hunt last month. Findings from the Marx review will be published early in 2019."

"... Professor Gerada is one of 10 experts appointed to help Dame Clare lead the review. Speaking exclusively to GPonline earlier this year, the former RCGP chair revealed that 1,100 GPs had sought help for stress and burnout-related problems from the GP Health Service she helped to establish during its first full year in operation.

"She said at the time: 'We have many cases similar to that of Dr Bawa-Garba. Doctors who have made errors and been erased and not made the headlines. She has come at a tipping point. We have pointed out the disproportionate nature of some of the cases.'"

"... 'As a group we are committed to exploring every avenue to promote a no blame culture and encouraging a renewed focus on reflective practice and learning. It will be a difficult challenge, but I am confident that my colleagues on this working group are the ideal team to achieve this.’"

https://www.gponline.com/former-rcgp-chair-named-gmc-manslaughter-review-panel/article/1465366

 

I initially thought it was saying that Clare Gerada was implicated in the manslaughter charge.......badly worded.

 

Yes, I perhaps should have modified the wording from the article for the header from 'named in' to 'appointed to'.

Clare Gerada has Tweeted recently in relation to patient complaints:

 

@Trish - as you have seen this, could I trouble you to make this change?

 

She seems unable to recognise that complaints may be on behalf of those who have been killed.

Those tweets should have been sufficient to exclude her from the role.

 

Thanks for this

 

Utterly and absolutely.

 

I don't arrive at this. But it is clear she is not dispassionate.

 

Wow. That's not good.

 

Gerada recently used the same phrasing 'name blame, and shame' when calling out a medical student on Twitter for publicly complaining about a confidentiality breach at the student's surgery, her complaint to the surgery of which had not been taken seriously. The student had not named any individual publicly.

 

It's easy to complain. There's no risk to the complainant.???

 

Quoting from

Before :
LORD JUSTICE GROSS
MR JUSTICE OUSELEY
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Between :
GENERAL MEDICAL COUNCIL
- and -
DR BAWA-GARBA

Hearing date: 7 December 2017

Source:

Code:

https://www.blackstonechambers.com/documents/636/GMC_v_BAWA-GARBA.pdf

Edited to break up paragraphs and add emphasis.

 

There are big risks to complaining.

• Future discrimination
• Psychological results if a just complaint is rejected unjustly
• Psychological results of powerful people treating a factual recounting as fantasy
  
• Allegations of being a serial complainer
• Use of past allegations used against complainer
  
• Psychological results of complaint(s) being used to try to discredit complainer as pathological
• etc

I'll re-frame her comment in a different context. Imagine a complaint of sexual harassment at work against a manager.

"It’s easy to complain. No risk to complainant . Sadly they kill managers"

If that were still her view then I won't say what I think of her.

 

There appears to be a further difficulty. That tweet about complaining being easy and no risk to the complainant was dated 10 May. The announcement looks to have been made on 21 May. Is it credible that no one else connected with the selection process was aware of it? It calls into question the whole enterprise, notwithstanding that there are legitimate questions to be asked.

 

She seems very focused and intent on pushing her motto that patients complaining kills physicians.

And see she's now started using '#compaintskill' to help push it into twitter world. Alliteration is a good promotion tactic.

#Clarekills is another alliterative example.

 

#incompetencekills
#arrogancekills
#psychogenicspeculationkills

 

This "them and us" attitude kills.

Patients not complaining can kill.

I understand doctors are human and make mistakes. If they were more open and honest with patients and had a more equal relationship they would probably find patients don't want doctors scapegoated or punished unfairly.

Complaints kill? Just move along nothing to see here.....