Complaints against the GMC

The request was successful.

Dear General Medical Council,

How many "complaints" did you receive for the fiscal year 2009-10?

Yours faithfully,

Z. Hussain

FOI, General Medical Council

Dear Z. Hussain

Information Request F10/3454/JM

Thank you for your email of 16 December 2010 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 Janet Mauldridge. If you have any
queries concerning your request you can contact Ms Mauldridge on 0161
923 6324 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

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Janet Mauldridge \(0161 923 6324\), General Medical Council

Our ref: F10/3454/JM

Dear Z. Hussain

I refer to your email dated 16 December 2010 in which your requested
information in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

You enquired about the number of complaints received by the GMC for the
fiscal year 2009-10. The GMC deals with complaints received about
registered medical practitioners which may raise concerns about their
fitness to practise. During the period 1 April 2009 - 31 March 2010 the
GMC received 4,626 enquiries about doctors. An enquiry is defined as
information received that may raise concerns about one or more doctors'
fitness to practise.

I hope the above information is useful. If I can be of further assistance
please contact me.

Yours sincerely

Janet Mauldridge

Information Access Officer

0161 923 6324

[email address]

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street

Manchester

M3 3AW

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Dear Janet Mauldridge (0161 923 6324),

Thank you for your response.

I apologise for the misunderstanding. That wasn't the information I was seeking.

I would like the figures for complaints ABOUT/AGAINST the GMC itself, not the complaints made about its members.

Yours sincerely,

Z. Hussain

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

Dear Z. Hussain

Information request F11/3491/JM

Thank you for your email received today clarifying your previous request
(ref: F10/3454/JM).

I have now set this up a new request (ref: F11/3491/JM) and allocated it
to Janet Mauldridge. We will deal with the request under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and you should normally receive this within
the 20 working-day deadline set by the FOIA.

If you have any queries please contact Ms Mauldridge.

Yours sincerely

Sarah Leigh

Information Access Team Administrator

0161 923 6398

[1][email address]

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street

Manchester

M3 3AW

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Janet Mauldridge \(0161 923 6324\), General Medical Council

Our ref: F11/3491/JM

Dear Z. Hussain

I refer to your email dated 10 January 2011 and apologise that I
misunderstood your original information request.

I have now obtained figures for the numbers of complaints received by both
the Standards and Fitness to Practise Directorate and Registration and
Resources Directorate of the GMC during the fiscal year 2009-2010.

The Standards and Fitness to Practise Directorate received a total of 429
complaints. This figure includes complaints received via the Office of the
Chair and Chief Executive (OCCE) and the Customer Service Manager. It also
includes complaints received in the directorate about service levels or
staff.

This figure does not necessarily give a true reflection of the number of
complaints received by our Standards and Fitness to Practise Directorate
as some complaints are addressed directly to individuals and teams. These
complaints are dealt with at a local level and are not counted in the
above figure.

I should also stress that quantifying the number of actual complaints
about the GMC is somewhat subjective. For example, a complainant may be
dissatisfied with the outcome of their complaint, which they may see as a
complaint about the GMC rather than with the outcome of their complaint.
For the purposes of providing you with these statistics we have classified
any level of dissatisfaction as a complaint.

In the same period the Registration and Resources Directorate received a
total of 941 complaints. This figure includes 47 complaints addressed to
the Office of the Chair and Chief Executive (OCCE) which may have been
counted separately by both Directorates. This figure encompasses all
complaints received by teams within this directorate.

Despite the caveats I have outlined above I hope this information is
useful to you.

Yours sincerely

Janet Mauldridge
Information Access Officer
0161 923 6324
[email address]

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street

Manchester

M3 3AW

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donna foot left an annotation ()

I feel the gmc have failed their duties . I have been misdiagnoed with a borderline personality disorder by Dr SUsan e Bradbury reported it to the gmc and they turn their back taking no action I wil fight on for Justice as she is guilty.

Nigel Murray left an annotation ()

Having read your dissatisfaction/possibly outrage with the GMC's response to your complaint about your doctor, I am motivated to add this.

25 year old tentative diagnoses, proposing that I might have psychoid personality disorder and schizophrenia, but which were never acted on, turned up in my current medical record, represented as significant history. I found out that my GP had recently added them to my record without a word to me. I have checked with the local psychiatry department and it has been confirmed I have never been treated for them. My complaint to the GMC was that the GP who put them there knew I was going to complain about being taken off the patient list for something I had not done. The GP appeared to have added these diagnoses in a prominent place on my health record so that she could use them to influence the enquiry team helping me with my complaint against her. She would have told them I had to be stopped from coming to the surgery because of having these illnesses, which can be associated with being disruptive and antisocial. This was among a number of things which the GMC refused to investigate, saying that nothing in my complaint (nearly 40 pages long!) called into question the doctors fitness to practice.

Like you, I am continuing the fight. I am presently writing a follow up to the GMC's reply to my complaint about their prejudiced decision. Unbelievably, the same person that refused to have the doctors investigated has also answered back to my complaint about her refusal. I wish I could find the Achilles heel of these arrogant organisations. Anybody any hints?

A.E. left an annotation ()

You can complain about the outcome of the GMCs decision here:

http://www.gmc-uk.org/about/contactus/co...

You can ask to contact a "Fitness to Practise Investigations officer"‏ or make a complaint if you are unhappy with the service you have received from the GMC.

Nigel Murray left an annotation ()

Thank you A.E.

After I replied in May 2014 to add my complaint to Donna Foot's post, somebody got in touch with similar concerns about the GMC.

She was kind enough to keep me informed and sent the following email:

"Hi Nigel,

I have managed to find out that I need to contact the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care re my complaint against the GMC.

Thanks so much for your advice on this as I was going to go through my MP and send it across to the PHSO initally. "

I hope this info may add another arrow to people's quiver.

Dr Kiraeli Veryfedup left an annotation ()

Incompetent, time-wasting, apathic to their own good guidances, dealing with doctors 'under double standards', leaving doctors who acted GOOD 'out in the dry' with no support and no-where to turn to (a useless phone line for emotional support does not count!), deploying 'foreign non-medical 20-somethings with strong accent and poor English command' for complaint handlers, relating extremely badly with Revalidation England, delegating conduct matters to the Revalidation Officer to judge subjectively 'on the cuff' (yep, you read me!!! outside his remit!!!) - that should summarise in breve. Blowing up little mosquitoes into enormous time-wasting professional misconduct trials (even investigating Consultants that have not received a valid complaint), every doctor is instantly treated as if we are criminals in ignorance to good law-abiding ethical reasons in the interest of our patients. Am I the only one? But what mishandling IDIOCY has this institution become compared with the 90ies? I can see the fundamental difference, lucky me as I had in between a break that made me even more qualified in my profession. See my door closing by simply leaving. They failed me badly twice in little matters - I have no confidence in this lot.

Dr Kiraeli Veryfedup left an annotation ()

Now the anti-European invention of 'Revalidation' makes sense. 'cause THIS modern GMC is NOT competent any longer.

elz100 left an annotation ()

I would just like to add, i feel like i have been totally discriminated against by the GMC just because i have a mental health problem, and i think the way they treat people is disgusting.
I was off sick with a mental health problem following something that happened to me, and the GMC then said my fitness to practice was impaired because i had a mental health problem. I had never tried to work when i was ill. i had never done anything wrong. i was off sick at the time. just seems like total discrimination to me, and now I'm going to have undertakings on my GMC record for life!