Patient Complaints Regarding Dr James Allkins 3564248
Dear General Medical Council,
I would like to request the following information under the freedom of Information Act regarding Dr James Allkins 3564248
1) How members of the public have submitted complaints with the GMC regarding Dr James Allkins since 2010?
2) Were any of the complaints raised with the GMC about Dr Allkins for alleged prescription fraud?
3) Were any of the complaints raised with the GMC about Dr Allkins for allegedly altering the patients records?
Yours faithfully,
David Coats
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Thank you
Information Access team
General Medical Council
Email: [GMC request email]
Dear David Coats,
Your information request - IR1-3680084407
Thank you for your email below dated 10^th September 2022. Your request
has been passed to the Information Access Team for us to respond to.
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
Remi Owolabi will be handling your request. If you have any questions you
can contact her via email at [1][email address].
Yours Sincerely,
Alex Mason
Information Access Administrator
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester M3 3AW
Dear Mr Coates
Your information access request
Thank you for your email dated 10 September 2022, where you request
information on Dr Alkins. I’ve considered your request under the Freedom
of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
Under the FOIA I am unable to confirm whether or not we hold any
information in relation to your request, because it would breach data
protection legislation to do so.
We believe it’s reasonable for doctors and complainants to expect that
complaints will be treated as confidential. If a case progresses to a
hearing, or an investigation concludes with a warning or undertakings,
certain information may be made publicly available by the GMC, in line
with our publication and disclosure policy for fitness to practise
information. 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.
The exemption
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 lawful,
fair 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
I'm sorry I couldn’t provide the information you requested. If you would
like to appeal this decision please set out your reasons in writing to
[1][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 [2]Information Commissioner, the regulator of the FOIA and DPA at:
Customer Contact
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Yours sincerely
Remi Owolabi (she/her)
Information Access Officer
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester M3 3AW
Email: [3][email address]
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 Remi Owolabi,
Please may I adjust my FOI request to keep personal details private.
1) Therefore , can you please simply confirm whether or not any complaints have been raised with the GMC in regards to Dr Alkins over the last 5 years?
2) If there have been concerns raised by members of the public with the GMC, how many in total?
As you can see, there is no personal data within my request, therefore, the exemption should not apply.
I am simply just encouraging the GMC to display openness and transparency and provide me with a number.
Yours sincerely,
David Coats
Dear Mr Coats
As explained below, we believe complaints to be the personal data of doctors and complainants. For this reason, we are unable to confirm or deny whether we have received any complaints for the doctor.
For information on what we publish with regards to a doctors fitness to practice, please see our publication and disclosure policy for fitness to practice: https://www.gmc-uk.org/-/media/documents...
Yours sincerely,
Remi Owolabi (she/her)
Information Access Officer
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester M3 3AW
Email: [email address]
Dear Remi Owolabi,
I understand the nature of the complaints may be confidential.
However, I believe that if a member of the public had concerns about a doctor’s conduct, they should have a right to know whether 2 or 10 other members of the public had raised similar concerns about that same doctor.
I do not see the problem in confirming whether or not a doctor has had 5 complaints or 0. There is no personal data being disclosed by answering my request, there is only a simple statistic.
Furthermore, the police have no problem answering questions of this nature, neither does any other part of the public health sector, therefore I am struggling to see how you believe confirming a simple statistic is sensitive or personal data.
Yours sincerely,
David Coats
Dear David Coats,
IR: IR1-3686439601
Thank you for your email dated 16^th September 2022.
We will be considering your email as a Freedom of Information Act 2000
(FOIA) appeal. We have a target response time of 20 working days. We will
endeavour to respond to you within this timeframe.
Elizabeth Hiley will be responding to your email. If you have any queries,
you can email them at [1][email address].
Yours Sincerely,
Alex Mason
Information Access Administrator
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester M3 3AW
Dear Mr Coats
With apologies for the long delay in responding to you, please find attached a letter addressing your request for an internal review.
Yours sincerely
Elizabeth Hiley
Information Access Manager
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street, Manchester, M3 3AW
Email: [email address]
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