Guidance on use of unrecognised mental illnesses

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Dear General Medical Council,

Please provide information on the fitness to practice guidance relating to whether the following practices are allowed or not and under what section they would fall

1 - Including a named mental illness in medical notes which is not one found in the ICD-10 or DSM, and not listed as an alternative or older name for any of these

2 - Sectioning a patient into a psychiatric ward or unit or for forced treatment and / or forced detention based on a mental disorder not found in the ICD or DSM manuals

3 - Inappropriate use of a mental health diagnosis which is not widely accepted

4 - How and where patients - or doctors - can find which mental disorders are contested / disputed OR a list of which are unrecognized by the NHS and should not be used for the basis of treatments

Yours faithfully,

Mx Slack

FOI, General Medical Council

Thank you for getting in touch. Please note this is an automated email.

 

We’ll get back to you as soon as we can with a further acknowledgement.
You’ll usually hear from us on the next working day, but it might take a
little longer during busy periods.

 

In the meantime, if you want any further information about the GMC, please
visit our website.

 

 

Thank you

 

Information access team

General Medical Council

Email: [GMC request email]

Telephone: 0161 923 6365

Working with doctors Working for patients

The General Medical Council helps to protect patients and improve medical
education and practice in the UK by setting standards for students and
doctors. We support them in achieving (and exceeding) those standards, and
take action when they are not met.

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FOI, General Medical Council

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your email dated 16 August.

So that we can consider your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) please provide your true name. For a request to be valid, section 8(1)(b) of the FOIA requires that a request for information must include the name of the applicant. Until we have received this information we won’t consider your request.

If you have any queries about this, please contact me on the details below.

Yours sincerely

Lauren Barrowcliffe
Information Access Team Assistant

[email address]
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester
M3 3AW

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Dear FOI,

My name is Mx Slack (Mx being a gender neutral title). As per the information here, a title and surname is considered adequate for a request.

Yours sincerely,

Mx Slack

FOI, General Medical Council

Thank you for getting in touch. Please note this is an automated email.

 

We’ll get back to you as soon as we can with a further acknowledgement.
You’ll usually hear from us on the next working day, but it might take a
little longer during busy periods.

 

In the meantime, if you want any further information about the GMC, please
visit our website.

 

 

Thank you

 

Information access team

General Medical Council

Email: [GMC request email]

Telephone: 0161 923 6365

Working with doctors Working for patients

The General Medical Council helps to protect patients and improve medical
education and practice in the UK by setting standards for students and
doctors. We support them in achieving (and exceeding) those standards, and
take action when they are not met.

show quoted sections

FOI, General Medical Council

Dear Mx Slack,

 

Your information request - F19/10331/MM

Thank you for your email dated 16 August, in which you ask for various FTP
guidance relating to if certain practices are allowed or not and under
what section they would fall in regards to unrecognised mental illnesses.
Thank you also for your email on 20 August confirming you name.

 

How we will consider your request

We’re going to consider your request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000 (FOIA). The FOIA gives us 20 working days to respond, but we’ll come
back to you as soon as we can.

 

Who to contact

Matt McCoig-Lees will be handling your request. If you have any questions
you can call him on 0161 923 6579 or email him at
[1][email address].

 

Yours sincerely

 

Lauren Barrowcliffe
Information Access Team Assistant

 

[2][email address]

0161 240 8356

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street

Manchester

M3 3AW

 

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Matthew McCoig-Lees (0161 923 6579), General Medical Council

Dear Mx Slack

 

I write further to previous correspondence with a substantive response
under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000. This email contains
responses to your requests with reference numbers  F19/10330/MM and
F19/10331/MM. I will respond to them in numeric order.

 

F19/10330/MM

 

I am applying an exemption to your request in full because of the amount
of work it would take to process. Under the FOIA there is an exemption for
requests where it would cost the public authority more than £450 to
process- equivalent to two and half days’ work.

 

Our current electronic database was introduced around 2006. We do not have
electronic records going back to 1990. The only way that we would be able
to answer your questions would be to do a manual check of all FTP cases
which are not recorded electronically.

 

As a starting point, we would have to manually review every complaint of
every year where there are no electronic records and this would take a
massive amount of time. To take one year, in 1997 there were 2687
complaints. If it took 10 minutes per complaint (and it may well take
significantly longer) it would take over 447 hours to review each
complaint to get the information you want from it. Based on an hourly rate
of £25 per hour (which is set by the Freedom of Information (Fees and
Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004 ) this would cost us over £11,000. The
total cost of your request would therefore cost us significantly in excess
of the ‘appropriate limit’ to process.

 

The exemption

 

Under the FOIA, the specific exemption which we believe applies is at
section 12. This states that we are not required to comply with a request
if we estimate that the cost of doing so would exceed the appropriate
limit.

 

Advice and Assistance

 

We are obliged to offer you advice and assistance to make a request which
would not attract a costs exemption.

 

I believe we could provide answers to all of your questions apart from
question seven for the last three years for the most prolific 10 doctors.

 

In order to do this I would also need to understand if your question is
asking about doctors who refer other doctors to the GMC in their
professional capacity (for example as the Responsible Officer for an NHS
Trust) or if you mean in a private capacity.

 

F19/10331/MM

 

Your request was for information on the fitness to practice guidance
relating to whether certain practices are allowed or not.

 

To the extent that there is guidance which falls in the scope of your
request it is available on our [1]website. Particularly relevant will be
Good Medical Practice. It is not for me to comment on whether practices
are addressed by any of the guidance published.

 

Your right to appeal

 

I'm sorry I couldn’t provide the information you requested in relation to
F19/10330/MM . If you would like to appeal this decision to Julian Graves,
Information Access Manager, please set out your reasons in writing by
email to [2][GMC request email]. Please note that we will only usually consider
appeals received within 40 working days of our response. You can also
appeal to the Information Commissioner, the regulator of the FOIA and DPA.

 

Kind Regards

 

Matt

 

Matthew McCoig-Lees

Information Access Officer

Information Access Team

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street

Manchester

M3 3AW

Email: [3][email address]

Website: [4]www.gmc-uk.org

Tel: 0161 923 6579

 

 

 

 

Kind Regards

 

Matt

 

Matthew McCoig-Lees

Information Access Officer

Information Access Team

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street

Manchester

M3 3AW

Email: [5][email address]

Website: [6]www.gmc-uk.org

Tel: 0161 923 6579

 

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Dear Matthew McCoig-Lees (0161 923 6579),

This response appears to be referring to a different request or a misunderstanding.

I have asked only for fitness to practice guidance, ie policies and procedures which apply in the present.
No information on previous complaints is being sought. No information on historical procedures of guidance is necessary.
I simply require a copy of any of the relevant fitness to practice standards, guidance or documentation that covers the mental health / mental disorder points mentioned in my original question. If no such guidance exists then I would require confirmation that it does not exist / is not covered in the relevant documents.

Yours sincerely,

Mx Slack

Matthew McCoig-Lees (0161 923 6579), General Medical Council

I am out of the office Monday 23 December 2019 - Monday 6 January 2020
inclusive.

 

While I am away I will have no access to my emails, they are not
automatically forwarded and no one will access them on my behalf.

If your query is urgent please phone 0161 923 6579 or email [GMC request email]
and a team member will assist you.

Please note that if you are submitting a new information request to this
email address while I am away, the start date for determining the deadline
for a response will not begin until it is read on my return. Please email
it to [GMC request email].

Please be aware I may have a number of emails to respond to upon my return
but I will reply as soon as I can.

 

Thank you.

 

 

Working with doctors Working for patients

The General Medical Council helps to protect patients and improve medical
education and practice in the UK by setting standards for students and
doctors. We support them in achieving (and exceeding) those standards, and
take action when they are not met.

show quoted sections

FOI, General Medical Council

Dear Mx Slack,

Your information request - IR1-2579484861

Thank you for your email which was received 7 January. In your email you
ask for a copy of any of the relevant fitness to practice standards,
guidance or documentation that covers the mental health/mental disorder.

 

How we will consider your request

We’re going to consider your request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000 (FOIA). The FOIA gives us 20 working days to respond, but we’ll come
back to you as soon as we can.

Who to contact

Matt McCoig-Lees will be handling your request. If you have any questions
you can call him on 0161 923 6579 or email him at
[1][email address].

 

Yours sincerely

 

Lauren Barrowcliffe
Information Access Team Assistant

 

[2][email address]

0161 240 8356

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street

Manchester

M3 3AW

 

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Matthew McCoig-Lees (0161 923 6579), General Medical Council

Dear Mx Slack

 

Thank you for your email.

 

Please note I am only responding to the email set out below and not your
other request for information.

 

I confirm that I did not misunderstand your request. I appreciate that
your request did not ask for previous complaints or historic guidance.

 

I can only repeat what I previously stated.

 

Guidance for doctors on the standards we expect doctors to uphold is
available on our [1]website. The guidance reflects the standards for
doctors.  Particularly relevant will be Good Medical Practice. It is not
for me to comment on whether practices you enquire about specifically are
addressed by any of the guidance published.

 

I’m sorry I cannot be more helpful. If you have any comments on how I have
responded to your request please email [2][email address].

 

 

 

---

Kind Regards

 

Matt

 

Matthew McCoig-Lees

Information Access Officer

Information Access Team

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street

Manchester

M3 3AW

Email: [3][email address]

Website: [4]www.gmc-uk.org

Tel: 0161 923 6579

 

From: FOI
Sent: 09 January 2020 11:27
To: '[FOI #597551 email]'
<[FOI #597551 email]>
Subject: RE: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Guidance
on use of unrecognised mental illnesses

 

Dear Mx Slack,

Your information request - IR1-2579484861

Thank you for your email which was received 7 January. In your email you
ask for a copy of any of the relevant fitness to practice standards,
guidance or documentation that covers the mental health/mental disorder.

 

How we will consider your request

We’re going to consider your request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000 (FOIA). The FOIA gives us 20 working days to respond, but we’ll come
back to you as soon as we can.

Who to contact

Matt McCoig-Lees will be handling your request. If you have any questions
you can call him on 0161 923 6579 or email him at
[5][email address].

 

Yours sincerely

 

Lauren Barrowcliffe
Information Access Team Assistant

 

[6][email address]

0161 240 8356

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street

Manchester

M3 3AW

 

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