Dr. Pitcairn , formulaic paragraphs, legal assessors

The request was refused by General Medical Council.

Dear General Medical Council,

IN the case of Rashid v GMC, Neutral Citation Number: [2012] EWHC 2862 (Admin)

I have noted that the referral to the GMC was made in letter by Dr. Pitcairn. Having read through the observations made by the court , it would appear that the referral letter by Dr. Pitcairn was misleading in relation to the concerns alleged regarding the making of the medical surgery available for use and also included irrelevant points.

I have pasted the sections from the court judgement:-

8.The panel had received a letter from Dr Pitcairn, the Deputy Medical Director of the PCT to which Dr Rashid was contracted, and this was referred to in the determination. In that initial letter, the GMC were informed that the claimant....

9.......... It was also recorded that Dr Rashid had declined to give any commitment that his premises could continue to be used in a successor practice which took over the NHS services.

14.The panel does appear to rely on eight allegations in support of their decision to suspend Dr Rashid. They were: .......fifth, the failure to offer his surgery to the incoming GP practice when he ceased to practice there;

18.So far as the dispute with Dr Temperley is concerned and the dispute with the PCT, it seems to me these are entirely neutral considerations, and are entirely irrelevant. If two partners fall into dispute, the right way to resolve it is either by negotiation or litigation. It does not really matter which of them is eventually successful; that is the civilised way to resolve business disputes.

Similarly, the failure to offer up his surgery to the incoming GP practice is again completely irrelevant. Firstly, I am not convinced that he has any obligation to do so in circumstances where he is one of five joint owners, and he no longer intends to use it as a practice.
And secondly, in fact he had agreed, I now know, to let the new practice use his surgery for a commercial rent.

______________________
JUDGE GOSNELL : No, just to help you with that, I would hope that as part of your role through your instructing solicitors to reflect what I have said, or whether you choose to obtain a transcript or not, because I think it is something that would be helpful, that certainly the legal advisor should have been more helpful to colleagues at the time, I think. Whilst I think that had the determination been more felicitously expressed, your opponent's case would not have been as strong, but the result would have been the same. But it makes it a lot harder for everyone when formulaic paragraphs are used, whether they were directly cut and pasted or not, they looked a lot like they were. So I was hoping you were going to take that message back either way.

MR McDONAGH: Your Lordship can rest assured I am assisted by my instructing solicitor who sits behind me, who has a direct line to those more senior within the Council.

____________________
FOI Questions:

Has the GMC asked Dr Pitcairn to explain why misleading information was submitted to the GMC?

If yes, what was the outcome?

If no, then how is the GMC certain that such actions will not be repeated by Dr. Pitcairn?

Does the submission of misleading information to the GMC constitute a breach of Good Medical Practice?

How many doctors have been referred to the GMC by this Dr. Pitcairn over the last five years?

What has been the outcome of these referrals ?

The Court also implied that formulaic paragraphs had been cut and pasted , does the GMC make decisions by using formulaic paragraphs which are cut and pasted?

What training do you provide to your legal assessors?
For how long has the legal assessor in this case been sitting as a legal assessor for the GMC?

Is there a separate organisation which regulates the conduct of the GMC?

Yours faithfully,

Sarah J White

FOI, General Medical Council

Dear Ms White

 

Your information request – F15/7112/SL

 

Thank you for your email dated 29 May 2015.

 

How we will consider your request

 

We’re going to look at 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

 

Sarah Leigh will be handling your request. If you have any questions you
can call her on 0161 923 6398 or email them at [1][email address].

 

Yours sincerely

Miss Sadie Jones

Information Assistant

[2][email address]

0161 250 6889

 

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street

Manchester

M3 3AW

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Sarah Leigh (0161 923 6398), General Medical Council

1 Attachment

Our reference: F15/7112/SL
 
Dear Ms White
 
I'm writing to respond to your request made under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (FOIA). I've answered your questions in turn below:
 
1) a. Has the GMC asked Dr Pitcairn to explain why  misleading information
was submitted to the GMC? If yes, what was the outcome?
1) b. If no, then how is the GMC certain that such actions will not be
repeated by Dr. Pitcairn?
 
I can confirm that we don’t hold the information requested regarding
question 1a.
 
Part b. of your question is a general query asking for the GMC's view not
a request for recorded information as described under the FOIA. I
therefore confirm that we do not hold the information requested.
 
2) Does the submission of misleading information to the GMC constitute a
breach of Good Medical Practice?
 
This is a general query asking for the GMC's view and not a request for
recorded information as described under the FOIA. I therefore confirm that
we do not hold the information requested.
 
3) How many doctors have been referred to the GMC by this Dr. Pitcairn
over the last five years?
4) What has been the outcome of these referrals ?
 
I can only confirm details of cases where there has been a public outcome.
This informaiton would appear on a doctor’s registration is on our List of
Registered Medical Practitioners (LRMP), which can be found on our
website: [1]www.gmc-uk.org.
 
I can confirm that there is no public information about referrals from Dr
Pitcairn, other than the Dr Rashid case you have referenced. I can’t
confirm whether we hold information about other referrals made by Dr
Pitcain where the was no public sanction found against the referred
doctor. To do so would breach the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA).
 
We believe it’s reasonable for doctors and complainants to expect that
complaints will be treated as confidential. It is only if a case
progresses to a public hearing, or the doctor receives a sanction on their
registration, that certain information may be made publicly available by
the GMC. Where this doesn’t happen the information remains the
confidential personal data of the doctor and other parties involved. I’ve
given details of the exemption under the FOIA which applies below.
 
Section 40(5)(b)(i) of the FOIA applies where the information, if held,
would be the personal data of a third party and where confirming whether
it’s held would breach any principle of the DPA.  I believe that to
publicly confirm or deny whether we hold the information would breach the
first principle of the DPA, which requires that the processing of personal
data is fair and lawful. I believe the conditions in Schedule 2 of the
DPA, which are about the processing of personal information, are not met
and therefore giving you the information would be unlawful.
 
5) The Court also implied that formulaic paragraphs had been cut and
pasted, does the GMC make decisions by using formulaic paragraphs which
are cut and pasted?
 
Panellists do have access to templates for determinations to help them
with the structure and format of their decsion. However, all decisions
should be tailored to the particular circumstances of the case. We issued
a circular to panellists on this specific case in December 2012 following
Judge Gosnell's judgement. I’ve attached the circular for your
information. In addition, this case forms part of our Interim Order Panel
training programme as a relevant piece of case law.
 
 
6) What training do you provide to your legal assessors?
 
All new panellists and legal assessors undergo an intensive training
programme with the Mediacal Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) before
they’re able to sit or assist in a case. This training covers a wide scope
of material and topics. In addition to this, all panellists and legal
assessors attend mandatory annual training which covers key developments
that year.
 
We also have a feedback process for those involved in panels. After each
hearing, we ask the panel, Panel Secretary and Legal Assessor to provide
feedback on each other through a 360 feedback system. Any feedback
received which raises a significant concern or a pattern of concerns is
considered within the MPTS Panel Development team and any necessary action
taken.
 
The MPTS Quality Assurance Group meets monthly and discusses a selection
of recently concluded hearings. The group reviews decisions and on
occasions will send feedback to panellists and legal assessors on specific
hearings. This is what happened with the case referred to in your request.
 
In addition, legal assessors have access to the MPTS Associates website
which contains lots of guidance, information and case law (including this
particular case).
 
7) For how long has the legal assessor in this case been sitting as a
legal assessor for the GMC?
 
The legal assessor in this case was confirmed as a legal assessor in June
2010 following completion of the induction training programme.
 
8) Is there a separate organisation which regulates the conduct of the
GMC?
 
The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) is responsible for overseeing the health and care professional regulatory bodies, including the GMC. The PSA carries out
annual checks on the regulators' effectiveness, reviews all final fitness to
practise decisions, as well as auditing the initial stages of the fitness to practise process.    
 
I'm sorry I couldn’t provide all the information you requested. You can
appeal against this decision to Julian Graves, Information Access
Manager.  If you want to appeal, please set out your reasons and write to
him at the above address or email [email address].  You can also appeal
to the Information Commissioner, the regulator of the FOIA and DPA – we
can provide more details about this if you need them.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Sarah Leigh
Information Access Officer
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street, Manchester M3 3AW
 
Email: [email address]
Website: [2]www.gmc-uk.org
Telephone: 0161 923 6398
 
 

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Dear General Medical Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of General Medical Council's handling of my FOI request 'Dr. Pitcairn , formulaic paragraphs, legal assessors'.

I am not at all satisfied with the response to my foi request.
Please provide the information requested. I will contact the PSA also.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/d...

Yours faithfully,

Sarah J White

FOI, General Medical Council

Dear Ms White

Thank you for your email dated 25 June 2015. Your email will receive our attention in line with our comments and complaints procedure for information requests. This sets a target response time of 20 working days. We will endeavour to respond to you within this timeframe.

Courtney Brucato will be responding to your email. If you have any queries, please contact her on 0161 923 6692 or email her at [email address].

Yours sincerely

Mrs Mariam Ifzal
Information Assistant
[email address]
0161 923 6420

General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester
M3 3AW

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Courtney Brucato (0161 923 6692), General Medical Council

1 Attachment

Our reference: F15/7112/SL

Dear Ms White,

Please find attached our response to your request for an internal review under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. If you have any questions please let me know.

Yours sincerely,

Courtney Brucato
Information Access Officer
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester
M3 3AW
 
Phone: 0161 923 6692

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