GMC Complaints

Liz R made this Freedom of Information request to Department of Health and Social Care This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was partially successful.

Dear Department of Health,

How many complaints about the GMC have you received in the last 5 years please?

I have heard loads of people complain about them, and personally I complained about Dr.Simon Murch giving my son a colonoscopy without parental permission (mine or the childs father) and after having seen tests (for any infections or other problems) that were absolutely clear too- he went ahead and prescribed my son Vancomycin- a then dangerous antibiotic- so this complaint was ignored and I am stonewalled from making complaints- there are many doctors making horrific mistakes and causing much illness whom are getting away scot free and others are clearly good doctors whom are being vilified- the GMC is starting to look like a child and good-person abusing misogynistic organisation -it really is- so do you have any recorded information pertaining to these comments that you can share as well as providing me with the number of complaints made about to your Department about the GMC please?

Thank you for your time and assistance

Yours sincerely

Elizabeth R

Department of Health and Social Care

Thank you for your email.

Where a reply is appropriate we aim to send one within 20 working days.

If your enquiry is about a medical matter, please contact NHS Direct on
0845 4647 or visit [1]NHS Choices, or contact your GP surgery.

For the latest on swine flu, please visit [2]the National Pandemic Flu
Service (NPFS) or call 0800 1 513 100.

For general health information you may also find it helpful to refer to
[3]Directgov, the UK Government's Official information website, or the
Department of Health website's [4]Frequently Asked Questions.

show quoted sections

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.nhs.uk/
2. http://www.direct.gov.uk/pandemicflu/
3. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm
4. http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/FAQ/index.htm

Department of Health and Social Care

Our ref: DE00000501589

Dear Ms R
Thank you for your email of 21 April asking, under the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA), for information about complaints about the General
Medical Council (GMC) made to this Department over the past 5 years.
I should explain that while it is possible that we may hold information
falling within the terms of your request, because of the way in which
correspondence is listed in our records, we have identified over 1000
cases which would need to be extracted and read individually in order to
establish whether they included a relevant complaint or otherwise.
We have therefore calculated that the working time needed to answer your
request would amount to over 80 person/hours, signally in excess of the
-L-600 or 3.5 person/day cost limit laid down for central government
bodies under S12 of the FOIA.
For this reason, we will not be proceeding further with this request.
However, you do have the right to make a new request, for example, for a
search of the past year's correspondence, which we might be able to
undertake within the cost limit. I should mention that we cannot
guarantee that the cost limit would not be exceeded, nor that a new search
would be absolutely accurate or exhaustive, given that not all
correspondence passes through our central system. As you have asked for
numbers of complaints rather than details of any individual cases, we
regard it as unlikely that a new request would engage any of the other
FOIA exemptions.
It is possible that some information relevant to your enquiry might be
held by the Ombudsman's office, which is also a FOIA public authority, so
that you could also make a request for any information they might hold.
Their website address, which will give further contact details, is:
[1]www.ombudsman.org.uk .
I am sorry to be unable to be more helpful at this stage. If you are
dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask
for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted
within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original
letter and should be addressed to:

Head of the Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health
Room 317
Richmond House
79 Whitehall ,
London
SW1A 2NS

Email: [2][email address]

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner (ICO) for a decision. Generally,
the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints
procedure provided by the Department. The ICO can be contacted at:

The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely,
Colin McDonald
FOI Casework Manager

show quoted sections

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.ombudsman.org.uk/
2. mailto:[email address]

Dear Department of Health,

Thank you, please clarify how you identified 'over a thousand' cases? Were these complaints? There is no need to detail the complaints, it's purely the recorded number of complaints you've received (approximate?)as you've stated 'over a 1,000'-that I required- so is 'over a 1,000 cases' meaning 'over a thousand complaints noted/received' as that is the answer to my original question?

Thanks for your kind assistance

Yours sincerely,

Liz R

Department of Health and Social Care

Thank you for contacting the Department of Health.
This is an automatic acknowledgement that does not require a response.
Where a reply is appropriate we aim to send one within 20 working days.

If your enquiry is about a medical matter, please contact NHS Direct on
0845 4647 or visit [1]NHS Choices, or contact your GP surgery.

For general health information you may also find it helpful to refer to
[2]Directgov, the UK Government's Official information website, or the
Department of Health website's [3]Frequently Asked Questions.

show quoted sections

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.nhs.uk/
2. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm
3. http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/FAQ/index.htm

Department of Health and Social Care

Our ref: DE00000501805 - Number of complaints to DH about the GMC

Dear Ms R,

Thank you for your email of today's date about our response, our ref.
DE00000501589, to your FOI request for the number of complaints about the
GMC received by this Department.

We identified by electronic search of our central correspondence system, a
total of 1020 letters and emails received concerning the GMC, during the
period in question. The fact that they related primarily to the GMC would
have led to their being classified for archiving purposes under the
keyword 'GMC'. Without reading these individual pieces of
correspondence, however, it would be impossible to verify how many of
them were complaints, and how many were about other GMC related matters,
as no sub-heading exists, such as 'GMC - Complaints,' which would have
enabled us to apply a further filter which would have answered your
question.

While I will certainly raise this issue with our IT support colleagues, if
we introduced such a sub-heading, it could be applied only to new
correspondence, not retrospectively. I am sorry if our response created
any confusion.

Finally, I would like to reiterate that you do have the right to make a
new requests for similar information over a shorter period; we estimated
that a year's correspondence could be searched within the cost limit.

If you have any further queries about our response, please do not hesitate
to contact me.

Yours sincerely

Colin McDonald
FOI Casework Manager

show quoted sections

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

Dear Department of Health,

I am altering this FOIA request to suit your budget and request the recorded number of complaints about the GMC that you have received in the last 12 months please?

Thank you for your kind assistance

Yours sincerely

Liz R

Department of Health and Social Care

Thank you for contacting the Department of Health.
This is an automatic acknowledgement that does not require a response.
Where a reply is appropriate we aim to send one within 20 working days.

If your enquiry is about a medical matter, please contact NHS Direct on
0845 4647 or visit [1]NHS Choices, or contact your GP surgery.

For general health information you may also find it helpful to refer to
[2]Directgov, the UK Government's Official information website, or the
Department of Health website's [3]Frequently Asked Questions.

show quoted sections

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.nhs.uk/
2. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm
3. http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/FAQ/index.htm

Department of Health and Social Care

Our ref: DE00000501917

Dear Ms R

Thank you for your recent emails asking, under the Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA), for information about the number of complaints about the
General Medical Council (GMC) made to this Department.

I can confirm that in the past 12 months, we recorded on our
correspondence system a total of 70 complaints about the GMC, out of a
total of 249 items of correspondence about the GMC in one way or another.
As I explained in my earlier response, this may not be an exhaustive
return, as a small number of our communications are not dealt with through
this system. However, these tend not to be from members of the general
public, and to be technical in character, so that they are unlikely to
include any significant number of complaints.

I hope this information is helpful. If you are dissatisfied with the
handling of your request, you have the right to ask for an internal
review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of
the date of receipt of the response to your original letter and should be
addressed to:

Head of the Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health
Room 317
Richmond House
79 Whitehall ,
London
SW1A 2NS

Email: [1][email address]

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner (ICO) for a decision. Generally,
the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints
procedure provided by the Department. The ICO can be contacted at:

The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely,

Colin McDonald
FOI Casework Manager

show quoted sections

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]

Dear Mr. Colin McDonald

Thank you for your measured, thoughtful and good work.

Wish there was more like you.

Yours sincerely,

Liz R