GMC Used by Pharma to Eliminate Competition
by
Clifford Miller.
The typical modus operandi appears to be for complaints to be made to the General Medical Council by people other than patients. In other words, the GMC appears to be being used as a tool in a trade dispute to eliminate competition for some sectors of the drug industry. This is of course wholly contrary to the supposed role of the GMC in protecting patients.
There is hard information which shows unequivocally that the ABPI (Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry) are implicated in setting up a case against Dr Wakefield and were involved with the Sunday Times behind the scenes, setting Dr Wakefield and colleagues up in 2003 for a GMC hearing before a word was printed by the Sunday Times in 2004. At the time it was an open boast that the ABPI were involved and were providing funding. Since then someone appears to have been trying (unsuccessfully) to batten down the hatches after the horse has bolted. There is also disturbing information regarding the case of Dr Peter Mansfield, who was also complained about to the GMC and had to face a hearing over the MMR vaccine.
There are many troubling cases coming to light. The following is an example of a case which appears to follow the usual pattern but there is no information linking any drug company involvement. Accordingly, the complaint may well be wholly genuine - but that is disputed. If the complaint is genuine but no patients have been harmed, or have complained, but consider they have been well treated, then why would another medical professional make the complaint to the GMC? The case is of Dr Sarah Myhill and can be found here Open Letter Re My GMC Hearing In September 2007.
This of course raises questions regarding the case of Lisa Blakemore-Brown before the British Psychological Society PUBLIC STATEMENT - LISA BLAKEMORE BROWN - 31 January 2007 8:00 am. Ms Blakemore-Brown is a psychologist and former government advisor who linked to vaccines the appearance and increases in autistic spectrum disorders in children, other neurological disorders in children and what was claimed by Drs Meadow and Southall to be parents making up illnesses about their children.
The BPS claimed Ms Blakemore-Brown was mentally ill, producing evidence from a psychiatrist who had not even met her when independent evidence was produced from a professional who had met with Ms Blakemore-Brown for precisely such a reason and was unequivocally in her favour. The practice of declaring people mentally ill for the purpose of discrediting them (when what they do cannot be) was a practice of the communist regimes of old. That is an indication of how serious matters have become in the world of healthcare.
Is all this exaggeration? Regrettably not. Dr Rita Pal faced the same allegation of being mentally ill and took the matter to the Courts - you can read about it here - GMC like ‘totalitarian regime’ says judge By James Landon. Dr Rita Pal went to the GMC in 2003 claiming seriously ill elderly patients were being helped to die in Midland hospitals. Instead of taking her shocking complaints seriously, the GMC turned on her. Top-ranking staff openly questioned her sanity and started investigations into a case against her. Just like Ms Blakemore-Brown.
We now know Meadow was on the government safety committee which approved the MMR vaccine which had to be withdrawn in 1992 because it was too dangerous. The others involved include Dr David Salisbury Head of Immunisation at the Department of Health. So why is he still allowed to do that job when he was part of a system which made such a mess of it over the MMR? And what else is he up to now?
When Charles Medaware retired recently from years of work in Social Audit, highlighting the corruption in mental healthcare over the use of antidepressants, he said we now face "Pharmageddon".
Accordingly, it is now more important than ever that people consider ways of coming together, to complain to politicians, regulatory authorities, and more especially the media for failing all of us and all our children and their children. Inexplicably, whilst individual journalists seize upon good stories, editors are not publishing. The reasons are not clear. And you have to keep on complaining, not give up and not lose heart. Too much is at stake.
With nutrition being well-known scientifically and medically as the key to good health and disease prevention, as a species we should be the healthiest in our history. That is not in the interests of the drug industry.
As a child I have never wholly forgotten a two page feature in a national broadsheet newspaper of a surgeon who contracted what should have been a fatal pancreatic cancer. The story is impressive and raises questions about the whole thrust of the drug industry. Whilst all his medical colleagues wrote him off and were embarrassed by him, believing he would die soon, he turned to a practitioner of Chinese medicine. He was put on a diet of oily fish and pulses. The tumour disappeared. There are other successful cancer treatments which are nutritionally based. The pharmaceutical industry does not research these areas. If it became too well known that the right kinds of foods, vitamins and minerals can be successful treatments even for some of the most feared conditions, and if nutritional treatments became commonplace, that might damage the profits of the pharmaceutical industry a tad.