Expert witness report
Dear General Medical Council,
I wish to request information regarding an Expert Witness report.
I request this information as being in the public interest to disclose the requested information.
The specific inmformation I request is as follows:
The Expert medical witness report produced by Dr Michael Barry Fertleman and submitted by him prior to The General Medical Council/MPTS Fitness to Practice Tribunal case against Dr Sarju Man Shrestha held in Manchester 25th June 2018-29th June 2018.
Yours faithfully,
Mr Duncan L Long
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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.
Dear Mr Long,
Your information request - IR1-2612169441
Thank you for your email dated 10 February, in which you ask for a copy of
the expert report produced by Dr Michael Barry Fertleman and submitted by
him prior to the Fitness to Practice Tribunal case against Dr Sarju Man
Shrestha in June 2018.
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
Louise Gormley will be handling your request. If you have any questions
you can call her on 0161 923 6311 or email her 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
Our reference: IR1-2612169441
Dear Mr Long
Thank you for your email dated 11 February 2020, in which you request
information about Dr Sarju Man Shrestha. I have considered your request in
accordance with the access provisions of the Freedom of Information Act
2000 (FOIA).
Publicly available information about a doctor’s registration is on our
List of Registered Medical Practitioners (LRMP), which can be found on our
website. The LRMP lets you check a doctor’s registration status and
information about a doctor’s fitness to practise history.
Please find below a link to Dr Shrestha’s entry:
[1]https://www.gmc-uk.org/doctors/4784029
I am not able to confirm if we hold the information you request. We
believe it’s reasonable for doctors and complainants to expect that
complaints will be treated as confidential. If a case progresses to a
public hearing, or the doctor receives a sanction on their registration,
certain information may be made publicly available by the GMC. Otherwise
the information is treated as the confidential personal data of the doctor
and other parties involved. I’ve given details of the exemption under the
FOIA which applies below:
Exemptions
Section 40(5B)(a)(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 of the principles relating to the processing of
personal data listed at Article 5 of the GDPR. I believe that to publicly
confirm or deny whether we hold the information would breach the first
principle, which requires that the processing of personal data is fair,
lawful and transparent. I do not believe that any of the legal bases for
processing listed at Article 6 of the GDPR are met and therefore giving
you the information would be unlawful.
Your right to appeal
You can appeal against this decision to Julian Graves, Information Access
Manager. If you want to appeal, please set out your reasons and email
[2][email address]
You can also appeal to the Information Commissioner, the regulator of the
FOIA – we can provide more details about this if you need them.
Kind regards
Louise
Louise Gormley
Information Access Officer
Resources Directorate
Direct Line: 0161 923 6311
Email: [3][email address]
Website: [4]www.gmc-uk.org
Address: Information Access Team
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester
M3 3AW
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.
Dear Louise Gormley (0161 923 6311),
Thank you for looking into my information request. However, I do not accept your ruling.
Your ruling covers a request made by a person or persons simply seeking information with no additional rights other than an interest.
I, however, was the complainant.
To say after the fact that acknowledging the expert report is against the law. You (GMC) have already acknowledged the expert report exists so you cannot use that restriction as it patently does not apply here.
To quote you your own guidance for GMC experts, Section 6 - which deals with data protection, confidentiality, freedom of information and disclosure (of expert reports):-
S.6.19 –“we will usually disclose your expert report and your name where requested under Article 15 of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) where a case has closed to:’
* The complainant (or their representative).
* The patient referred to in the report.
S.6.23- “we will usually disclose your report on request to relatives of a patient referred to in your report if the patient is deceased”.
I clearly under your own rules am entitled to a copy of the expert report requested. The GMC have previously acknowledged the report exists and has done so in public.
The GMC reluctance to provide the information, however, is not based on FOI or GDPR rules but a desire to keep from the public its methods (GMC/MPTS) of assisting errant medical staff to avoid sanction and erasure by removing charges at the outset of fitness to practice tribunals based on clandestine expert reports.
Given the above points, I do not accept your decision as being either correct or indeed legal as you have admitted you have made a decision based upon yourselves having firstly broken the law by informing me in the first instance the report exists.
In layman’s terms, this is called wanting to have your cake and eat it.
This is not a matter to be routed down an appeal process but a matter to be dealt with correctly in the first instance. This you have failed to do.
You have not provided a satisfactory reason to withhold disclosure.
Yours sincerely,
Duncan Lawrence Long
Dear Mr Long,
Thank you for your email dated 13 March.
We will be considering your email under our comments and complaints
procedure. This sets a target response time of 20 working days. We will
endeavour to respond to you within this timeframe. I do apologies for the
delay in acknowledging your request.
Elizabeth Hiley will be handling your request. If you have any questions
you can contact her via email at [1][email address].
Yours sincerely
Lauren Barrowcliffe
Information Access Team Assistant
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester
M3 3AW
Dear Mr Long
Please find attached a letter relating to our internal review of our response to your FOIA request.
Yours sincerely
Elizabeth Hiley
Information Access Manager
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street, Manchester, M3 3AW
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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