Ex-President of GMC Catholic?

The request was successful.

Dear General Medical Council,

Is it true what has been said by some that the highest numbers of doctors were prosecuted by GMC when it had a Catholic President, Professor Catto?

Yours faithfully,

Helen Bright

FOI, General Medical Council

Dear Dr Bright

Information request F11/3523/LG

Thank you for your e-mail of 23 January 2011 in which you request
information in accordance with the provisions of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

We will consider your request and you will normally receive the
information you seek within the 20 working day limit set by the FOIA.

The FOIA lists a number of exemptions that may prevent the release of
part, or all, of the information that you have requested. We will make
an assessment of the requested information and if it is subject to an
exemption you will be informed of this, together with details of your
right of appeal.

Your request has been allocated to Louise Gormley. If you have any
queries concerning your request you can contact Ms Gormley on 0161 923
6311 or email [email address].

Yours sincerely

Sarah Leigh
Information Access Team Administrator
0161 923 6398
[email address]

General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester
M3 3AW

show quoted sections

Louise Gormley \(0161 923 6311\), General Medical Council

Dear Dr Bright

Thank you for your email below. Sir Graeme Catto was president of the
General Medical Council from 1 February 2002.

Our annual Fitness to Practise Statistics for this year and subsequent
years can be found in our council papers on our website, the relevant
webpage is as follows:

http://www.gmc-uk.org/about/council/pape...

Kind regards

Louise Gormley

Information Access Officer
Registration Directorate

Direct Line: 0161 923 6311
Email: [email address]
Website: www.gmc-uk.org
Address: Information Access Team
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester
M3 3AW

show quoted sections

Dear Louise Gormley (0161 923 6311),

I looked at a couple of links but cannot find a table with a number of cases referred to FTP hearings from eg 2001 to 2010.

Where did you find it, please?

Yours sincerely,

Helen Bright

Louise Gormley \(0161 923 6311\), General Medical Council

Dear Dr Bright

Thank you for your further email. In the link provided you need to go
into the council papers for each year and the annual statistics can be
found in the May or July papers, for your convenience I provide the
links below:

Fitness to Practise Annual Statistics 2001 (Please see item 7e)

http://www.gmc-uk.org/about/council/2002...

Fitness to Practise Annual Statistics 2002 (Please see item 9b)

http://www.gmc-uk.org/about/council/2003...

Fitness to Practise Annual Statistics 2003 (Please see item 4d)

http://www.gmc-uk.org/about/council/2004...

Fitness to Practise Annual Statistics 2004 (Please see item 5c)

http://www.gmc-uk.org/about/council/2005...

Fitness to Practise Annual Statistics 2005 (Please see item 4a)

http://www.gmc-uk.org/about/council/2006...

Fitness to Practise Annual Statistics 2006 (Please see item 6b)

http://www.gmc-uk.org/about/council/2007...

Fitness to Practise Annual Statistics 2007 (Please see item 5)

http://www.gmc-uk.org/about/council/2008...

Fitness to Practise Annual Statistics 2008 (Please see item 6b)

http://www.gmc-uk.org/about/council/2009...

Fitness to Practise Annual Statistics 2009 (Please see Item 6b)

http://www.gmc-uk.org/about/council/7036...

The Fitness to Practise statistics for 2010 will be published in May
2011.

I hope the above information is useful.

Kind regards

Louise Gormley
Information Access Officer
Registration Directorate

Direct Line: 0161 923 6311
Email: [email address]
Website: www.gmc-uk.org
Address: Information Access Team
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester
M3 3AW

show quoted sections

Dear Louise Gormley (0161 923 6311),

Thank you for helping me more. When did Prof. Catto leave? At the start of 2009?

There is a bit of denial, I can see, in one of the Statistical reports that there are no equality issues at GMC. We are well aware that GMC has targeted locum doctors as per GMC policy. Was it not Mr Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer, who disliked locums and urged for locums to be immediately investigated and for complaints from Medical Directors to be treated differently from eg that of a relative complaining that doctor killed their mother. Therefore, if a doctor killed somebody's mother that would not be investigated (for example, ask Ms Patricia Collins one of your investigators as she refused to investigate one such case)but if a doctor swore than GMC spent much time and energy as well as money destroying that doctor and depriving patients of good care.

There are certainly other issues as well: gender and race. GMC still employs sexist men who do not know that women have political opinions. They just declare them mad. Whistleblowers have been actively persecuted by GMC for not having loving relationships with teams defined as anyone, anywhere. Most naive.

GMC knows what I am saying to be true.

Yours sincerely,

Helen Bright

Louise Gormley \(0161 923 6311\), General Medical Council

Dear Dr Bright

Thank you for your email below. Apologies for the delay in getting back
to you, I confirm that Sir Graeme Catto served as President of the
General Medical Council from 1 February 2002 until 31 August 2009.

Kind regards

Louise

Louise Gormley

Information Access Officer
Registration Directorate

show quoted sections

Dear Louise Gormley (0161 923 6311),

Thank you very much for the information provided.

The format and content of the GMC Fitness to Practice reports has changed over the years.

It is interesting reading and I am grateful for your help.

**I cannot find what was the number of performance assessments requested in 2005 or 2009.

Maybe you can find this information instantly because of your familiarity with GMC! I am a bit lost. Help me, please.

Yours sincerely,

Helen Bright

Louise Gormley \(0161 923 6311\), General Medical Council

Dear Dr Bright

Thank you for your email below, this information is not immediately
available. Our current electronic database system holds information from
April 2006, I could run a report outlining the number of performance
assessment each year from this date, if that would be useful?

Please let me know and I can arrange for this information to be sent to
you.

Kind regards

Louise

Louise Gormley
Information Access Officer
Registration Directorate

show quoted sections

Dear Ms Louise Gormley (0161 923 6311),

OK. If you can do what you can in the first instance it would help. Thank you.

I managed to get some data for some other years.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Helen Bright

Louise Gormley \(0161 923 6311\), General Medical Council

I will not be back in the office until Monday 21 March 2011. In my
absence, if your enquiry is urgent, please contact the Information Access
Team on 0161 923 6316. Alternatively I will deal with your email on my
return.

Unless otherwise expressly agreed by the sender of this email, this
communication may contain privileged or confidential information which is
exempt from disclosure under UK law. This email and its attachments may
not be used or disclosed except for the purpose for which it has been
sent.

If you are not the addressee or have received this email in error, please
do not read, print, re-transmit, store or act in reliance on it or any
attachments. Instead, please email the sender and then immediately delete
it.

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street, Manchester, M3 3AW

Regents Place, 350 Euston Road, London, NW1 3JN

The Tun, 4 Jacksons Entry, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, EH8 8AE

Regus House, Falcon Drive, Cardiff Bay, CF10 4RU

9th Floor, Bedford House, 16-22 Bedford Street, Belfast, BT2 7FD

The GMC is a charity registered in England and Wales (1089278) and
Scotland (SC037750)

Sarah Leigh \(0161 923 6398\), General Medical Council

Dear Dr Bright

Information request - F11/3686/LG

Thank you for your e-mail of 16 March 2011 in which you request
information about performance assessments.

We will deal with your request in accordance with the provisions of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and you will normally receive the
information you seek within the 20 working day limit set by the Act.

The FOIA lists a number of exemptions that may prevent the release of
part, or all, of the information that you have requested. We will make
an assessment of the requested information and if it is subject to an
exemption you will be informed of this, together with details of your
right of appeal.

Your request has been allocated to Louise Gormley. If you have any
queries concerning your request you can contact Ms Gormley on 0161 923
6311 or email [email address].

Yours sincerely

Sarah Leigh
Information Access Team Administrator
0161 923 6398
[email address]

General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester
M3 3AW

show quoted sections

Louise Gormley \(0161 923 6311\), General Medical Council

Our reference: F11/3686/LG

Dear Dr Bright

Thank you for your email dated 16 March 2011, in which you request
information regarding performance assessments.

Where concerns relate to aspects of a doctor's performance, we may require
an assessment of the doctor's performance. If we consider that an
assessment is required, we will initially write to the doctor asking
him/her to confirm some basic details to assist us in arranging the
performance assessment.

I display below the number of performance assessments each year, from
April 2006 based on the date the doctor accepted.

Accepted Year No of Doctors
2010 66
2009 73
2008 63
2007 91
2006* 44

*Note 2006 only includes from April 2006, the date our current database
system went live

On average, it takes two to three months between the doctor accepting and
the performance assessment being carried out. An electronic search of our
current database system identifies the recorded date of acceptance for a
performance assessment. To obtain the date a doctor's assessment took
place, would involve us manually checking each doctors record to obtain
this information, I have therefore provided a breakdown by recorded date
of acceptance (excluding any cancelled assessments, meaning the above
assessments have taken place or are in the process/due to take place.)

The figures in 2007 are slightly higher due to the inputting of open cases
which were at the start of the process when our new system went live in
April 2006.

I hope this information is useful.

If you have any queries or concerns regarding the processing of your
request please contact Julian Graves, Information Access Manager, at the
address at the bottom of this email, or email [1][email address]

Kind regards

Louise

Louise Gormley

Information Access Officer
Registration Directorate

Direct Line: 0161 923 6311
Email: [email address]
Website: www.gmc-uk.org
Address: Information Access Team
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street

Manchester

M3 3AW

Unless otherwise expressly agreed by the sender of this email, this
communication may contain privileged or confidential information which is
exempt from disclosure under UK law. This email and its attachments may
not be used or disclosed except for the purpose for which it has been
sent.

If you are not the addressee or have received this email in error, please
do not read, print, re-transmit, store or act in reliance on it or any
attachments. Instead, please email the sender and then immediately delete
it.

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street, Manchester, M3 3AW

Regents Place, 350 Euston Road, London, NW1 3JN

The Tun, 4 Jacksons Entry, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, EH8 8AE

Regus House, Falcon Drive, Cardiff Bay, CF10 4RU

9th Floor, Bedford House, 16-22 Bedford Street, Belfast, BT2 7FD

The GMC is a charity registered in England and Wales (1089278) and
Scotland (SC037750)

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
mailto:[email address]

Dear Louise Gormley (0161 923 6311),

1. Thank you. I do not understand what you mean by open cases in 2007, could you please, explain?

2.Do you mean in 2007 there was the largest resistance from doctors who refused performance assessments? Twenty or so cases?

3. Performance Assessments were introduced under Labour Government in 1998, I think. Is it possible to just list (or give a table)for the sake of ease of understanding the number of performance assessments for each year since that time. I think, there must have been at least one year with 140 assessments done.

Thanking you for your kind attention,

Yours sincerely,

Dr Helen Bright

Dear Louise Gormley (0161 923 6311),

1. Is it possible to ask the performance assessments manager to give you the missing figures, please.

2. If you look at the Statistics in Year 2004 above in links provided by you GMC does give figures from 1998 to 2003 in tabular form, so there is no need for manual search.

3. However, in Statistics provided in year 2005 there is only partial information for year 2004: January to October 2004.

Yours sincerely,

Helen Bright

Louise Gormley \(0161 923 6311\), General Medical Council

1 Attachment

Our reference: F11/3686/LG

Dear Dr Bright

Thank you for your further queries in respect of the performance
assessment figures previously provided to you. I apologise for the delay
in responding to you.

As you are aware, performance assessment figures for the years 1998 until
2005 are published in our Annual Fitness to Practise Statistics on our
website. The figures for 2001 to 2005 relate to the number of assessments
carried out. I have collated this information from the Annual Fitness to
Practise Statistics and I attach the relevant extracts for you (Attachment
1). You will note that the figures prior to 2001 relate to the number of
doctors referred to the Performance Section (not the number of assessments
actually carried out).

The figures from April 2006 to April 2010 which I emailed to you
previously (also displayed below) are the number of cases where a
performance assessment is recorded as having been agreed each year from
April 2006 based on the doctor's date of acceptance. Please note an
assessment can be stopped at any point during our process.

Table 1 - Performance assessments by year - based on recorded date of
acceptance

Accepted Year No of Doctors
2010 66
2009 73
2008 63
2007 91
2006* 44

*Note 2006 only includes from April 2006, the date our current database
system went live

As explained previously, on average, it takes two to three months between
the doctor accepting and the performance assessment being carried out. An
electronic search of our current database system identifies the recorded
date of acceptance for a performance assessment, it does not
electronically capture the date a performance assessment was carried out,
and to obtain this information involves a manual search of a doctor's
record.

You suggest that the higher figure in 2007 means that more doctors are
refusing performance assessments in the subsequent years; this is not
correct. I have carried out a search of our database system and the number
of doctors who have refused a direction to undergo a performance
assessment has consistently remained very low in each year. (You will be
aware that in cases where a doctor refuses to undergo an assessment or
fails to cooperate with the assessment process, the case may be referred
to Fitness to Practice Panel)

I hope the above information is useful.

Kind regards

Louise Gormley

Information Access Officer
Registration Directorate

Direct Line: 0161 923 6311
Email: [email address]
Website: www.gmc-uk.org
Address: Information Access Team
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street

Manchester

M3 3AW

Unless otherwise expressly agreed by the sender of this email, this
communication may contain privileged or confidential information which is
exempt from disclosure under UK law. This email and its attachments may
not be used or disclosed except for the purpose for which it has been
sent.

If you are not the addressee or have received this email in error, please
do not read, print, re-transmit, store or act in reliance on it or any
attachments. Instead, please email the sender and then immediately delete
it.

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street, Manchester, M3 3AW

Regents Place, 350 Euston Road, London, NW1 3JN

The Tun, 4 Jacksons Entry, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, EH8 8AE

Regus House, Falcon Drive, Cardiff Bay, CF10 4RU

9th Floor, Bedford House, 16-22 Bedford Street, Belfast, BT2 7FD

The GMC is a charity registered in England and Wales (1089278) and
Scotland (SC037750)

Dear Louise Gormley (0161 923 6311),

Could you, please, provide the requested information of the numbers of doctors referred for performance assessments during Prof Catto's time as President of GMC.

Could you, please ask the person in charge of the department dealing with performance assessment to give you the figures if you cannot easily find it on electronic data base.

Yours sincerely,

Helen Bright

Louise Gormley \(0161 923 6311\), General Medical Council

Dear Dr Bright

 

Thank you for your email below. I am currently looking into this for you
and will get back to you shortly.

 

Kind regards

 

Louise

 

Louise Gormley

Information Access Officer
Registration Directorate
 
Direct Line: 0161 923 6311
Email:        lgormley@gmc-uk.org
Website:    [1]www.gmc-uk.org
Address:    Information Access Team
                 General Medical Council
                 3 Hardman Street

                 Manchester

                 M3 3AW

 

 

 

 

show quoted sections

Louise Gormley (0161 923 6311), General Medical Council

2 Attachments

Our reference: F11/4045/LG

 

Dear Dr Bright

 

Thank you for your email dated 16 September 2011, in which you request
information regarding the number of doctors referred for performance
assessments during Professors Catto’s time as President of the GMC.

 

In response to your request I confirm that Professor Graeme Catto was
President from the 1 February 2002 until 31 August 2009. I have recently
provided you with performance assessment figures from 2001 onwards, broken
down by year. I attach a further copy of these figures for you.

 

I hope this information is useful.

 

If you have any queries or concerns regarding the processing of this
request please contact Julian Graves, Information Access Manager, at the
address at the bottom of this email, or email [1][email address]

 

Kind regards

 

Louise Gormley

Information Access Officer
Registration Directorate
 
Direct Line: 0161 923 6311
Email:        lgormley@gmc-uk.org
Website:    [2]www.gmc-uk.org
Address:    Information Access Team
                 General Medical Council
                 3 Hardman Street

                 Manchester

                 M3 3AW

 

Unless otherwise expressly agreed by the sender of this email, this
communication may contain privileged or confidential information which is
exempt from disclosure under UK law. This email and its attachments may
not be used or disclosed except for the purpose for which it has been
sent.

If you are not the addressee or have received this email in error, please
do not read, print, re-transmit, store or act in reliance on it or any
attachments. Instead, please email the sender and then immediately delete
it.

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street, Manchester, M3 3AW

Regents Place, 350 Euston Road, London, NW1 3JN

The Tun, 4 Jacksons Entry, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, EH8 8AE

Regus House, Falcon Drive, Cardiff Bay, CF10 4RU

9th Floor, Bedford House, 16-22 Bedford Street, Belfast, BT2 7FD

The GMC is a charity registered in England and Wales (1089278) and
Scotland (SC037750)

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
mailto:[email address]
2. www.gmc-uk.org
file:///tmp/www.gmc-uk.org

Dear Louise Gormley (0161 923 6311),

Rather than making a new request under FOIA 2000 could you, please, provide the breakdown by ethnicity for performance assessments requests and results in year 2007.

Yours sincerely,

Helen Bright

FOI, General Medical Council

Dear Dr Bright

Your information request - F11/4247/LG

Thank you for your email of 9 December 2011. I note that you have not requested information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). However, as the information you have asked for is not readily available, we will need to consider it under the FOIA.

We will consider your request and give you the information as soon as we can, normally within the 20 working-day limit set by the FOIA.

I have allocated your request to Louise Gormley. If you have any questions, please contact her on 0161 923 6311 or email [email address].

Yours sincerely

Sarah Leigh
Information Access Team Administrator
0161 923 6398
[email address]

General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester
M3 3AW

show quoted sections

Louise Gormley \(0161 923 6311\), General Medical Council

Our reference: F11/4247/LG

 

Dear Dr Bright

 

Thank you for your email dated 9 December 2011, in which you request a
breakdown by ethnicity of the 91 performance assessments in 2007 (which
was based on date of acceptance).

 

I display below the further detail requested:

 

Performance Assessment SRs 2007
   
Doctors with SR by ethnicity
Ethnic Origin - Level # Doctors with SRs
1
Asian or Asian
British 20
Black or Black
British 4
Other Ethnic Groups 2
Unspecified 41
White 24
Grand Total 91

 

Please note there are a large number of unspecified as ethnicity is not a
mandatory field.

 

I hope the above information is useful.

 

If you have any queries or concerns regarding the processing of your
request please contact Julian Graves, Information Access Manager, at the
address at the bottom of this email, or email [1][email address]

 

Kind regards

 

Louise Gormley

Information Access Officer
Registration Directorate
 
Direct Line: 0161 923 6311
Email:        lgormley@gmc-uk.org
Website:    [2]www.gmc-uk.org
Address:    Information Access Team
                 General Medical Council
                 3 Hardman Street

                 Manchester

                 M3 3AW

 

 

 

 

Unless otherwise expressly agreed by the sender of this email, this
communication may contain privileged or confidential information which is
exempt from disclosure under UK law. This email and its attachments may
not be used or disclosed except for the purpose for which it has been
sent.

If you are not the addressee or have received this email in error, please
do not read, print, re-transmit, store or act in reliance on it or any
attachments. Instead, please email the sender and then immediately delete
it.

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street, Manchester, M3 3AW

Regents Place, 350 Euston Road, London, NW1 3JN

The Tun, 4 Jacksons Entry, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, EH8 8AE

Regus House, Falcon Drive, Cardiff Bay, CF10 4RU

9th Floor, Bedford House, 16-22 Bedford Street, Belfast, BT2 7FD

The GMC is a charity registered in England and Wales (1089278) and
Scotland (SC037750)

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
mailto:[email address]
2. www.gmc-uk.org
file:///tmp/www.gmc-uk.org

Dear Louise Gormley (0161 923 6311),

Thank you very much for the information supplied.

It appears that race and ethnicity are mixed together in data but these are different concepts somewhat. For example, people talk about white Scottish, Irish, English etc Each race can have a number of different ethnic groups.

Do you have the copy of the form doctors would have to complete for the data you supplied?

Yours sincerely,

Helen Bright

Louise Gormley (0161 923 6311), General Medical Council

1 Attachment

Our reference: F12/4300/LG

Dear Dr Bright

Thank you for your email below. Please find attached the requested form.

I hope the attached document is useful.

If I can be of any further assistance please let me know.

Kind regards

Louise Gormley
Information Access Officer
Registration Directorate

show quoted sections

Dear Louise Gormley (0161 923 6311),

Is it possible, please to comply with my FOIA 2000 request regarding requested information about performance assessments by answering these questions:
1. Does GMC have the data on the number of requested performance assessments for each year since 1998 to 2009? For which years do you have the data? Even if you do not have this data on electronic system, it is probably held by GMC.
2. Does GMC have the data on the number of performance assessments actually done each year from 1998 to 2009? So far you have only looked at electronic public information.
3. Please, reply promptly by return of email.

Yours sincerely,

Helen Bright

FOI, General Medical Council

Dear Dr Bright

Your information request - F12/4328/ME

Thank you for your email of 23 January 2012 asking for further
information about performance assessments.

We consider this as a new request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000 (FOIA). We will give you the information as soon as possible,
normally within the 20 working-day limit set by the FOIA.

I have allocated your request to Mark Ellen. If you have any questions,
please contact him on 0161 923 6347 or email [email address].

Yours sincerely

Sarah Leigh
Information Access Team Administrator
0161 923 6398
[email address]

General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester
M3 3AW

show quoted sections

Mark Ellen (0161 923 6347), General Medical Council

1 Attachment

Dear Dr Bright

With reference to your e-mail of 23 January 2012, please see attached
letter.

Regards
Mark Ellen

Unless otherwise expressly agreed by the sender of this email, this communication may contain privileged or confidential information which is exempt from disclosure under UK law. This email and its attachments may not be used or disclosed except for the purpose for which it has been sent.

If you are not the addressee or have received this email in error, please do not read, print, re-transmit, store or act in reliance on it or any attachments. Instead, please email the sender and then immediately delete it.

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street, Manchester, M3 3AW

Regents Place, 350 Euston Road, London, NW1 3JN

The Tun, 4 Jacksons Entry, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, EH8 8AE

Regus House, Falcon Drive, Cardiff Bay, CF10 4RU

9th Floor, Bedford House, 16-22 Bedford Street, Belfast, BT2 7FD

The GMC is a charity registered in England and Wales (1089278) and Scotland (SC037750)

Dear Mark Ellen,

Thank you for your reply.

1. Section 12 of FOIA 2000 does not state it is compulsory to refuse the request if work involves more hours.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000...

2. EU Directive 2000/43/EC places obligation to eliminate all forms of discrimination including administrative procedures. Please, see section 2, 3, 7 and 14.

3. Equality Act 2000 section 158 gives you option of positive action to eliminate discrimination and it is appropriate to apply it here in order to answer the request I made here under FOIA 2000.

4. Section 13 (3) of FOIA 2000 refers to fees as specified by other acts. Clearly, other legislation on race equality does not ask for any fees to be paid to eliminate discrimination!

5. If GMC was prepared to spend on £825 K so far on investigations into GMC procedures including racial issues why not use far less and section 158 of Equality Act 2010 to get the work done? ;)

Looking forward to your reply.

Kind regards,

Helen Bright

Dear Louise Gormley (0161 923 6311),

Thank you for your help. The answer to the question posed on 23-1-2011 is: Yes.

However, since then the number of complaints against doctors has increased further for a variety of reasons.

Yours sincerely,

Helen Bright

Julian Graves (0161 923 6351), General Medical Council

1 Attachment

Dear Dr Bright

Please find attached my response to your email to my colleague Mark Ellen.

Yours sincerely

Julian Graves

Julian Graves
Information Access Manager
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester
M3 3AW

Tel. no: 0161 923 6351
Email: [email address]

show quoted sections

Dear Julian Graves (0161 923 6351),

http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/nov/2...

Guardian looked at one million court records because it matters.

GMC could get volunteers as a charity to do some work if regular staff are too busy.

Also, if GMC is giving money to doctors why not spend it instead on research?

Yours sincerely,

Helen Bright