Big Brother

For some time now the GMC have been seeking to extend their tyrannical grip of doctors, not just in the professional area, but also into their private lives. Their recent poll on whether they should regulate doctors’ private behaviour got the sort of response it deserved and they had to shelve that one.

But they don’t give up, and now they are introducing “guidance” on how doctors use the social media. This might superficially seem like a reasonable idea. However the existing rules on patient confidentiality are already robust enough to extend to the web, and any doctor stupid enough to identify specific patients can already be dealt with.

So it has to be the case that these rules are really aimed at a doctor’s private life. one particular paragraph that caught my eye was this one.

“doctors should treat colleagues fairly and with respect and should not bully, harass or make gratuitous, unsubstantiated or unsustainable comments about individuals online. They should usually identify themselves and be aware that any information uploaded anonymously will often be able to be traced back to its origin.”

This again at first sight might seem reasonable, but bear in mind that if anyone thinks they have been libelled they already have access to redress under the existing law, that many think is itself far too skewed in favour of the plaintiff. They can also complain to the GMC if anything is said that undermines a patient’s trust in his doctor. (Para 47). 

And there is the threat, thinly veiled. You should identify yourself. None of us on the web has a right to anonymity, and this has recently been confirmed in a court case, but nor are we obliged to identify ourselves. Where appropriate a court order can be issued forcing an ISP to identify bloggers and the like but the GMC clearly want to bypass this safeguard. And the last line translates to “we can find out who you are”.

The rules as proposed could easily be abused to silence criticism of the GMC itself, and individuals within it, and are an assault on freedom of speech. If forced to identify themselves most medical bloggers would cease blogging and the voice of dissent would be silenced. Perhaps that is exactly what they are trying to do.

Eh?

A recent conversation between DZ and a colleague in another  speciality.

DZ...”I read recently that it is estimated that, in the UK, there is now more money spent annually on prostitutes than on going to the cinema. Mind you I suppose that a tart costs a lot more than the cinema.”

Coll...”I wouldn’t know, I haven’t been to the cinema in years”

History taking

A recent conversation between DZ and a patient.

DZ...”Are you a smoker?”

Pt.....”No doctor, I’m not”

DZ...”Have you ever smoked?”

Pt.....”Yes, in the past”

DZ...”When did you last smoke”

PT.....”Oooh let me think, what day is it?”

Revalidation bollocks

The revalidation juggernaut rumbles on, as coldly malicious to it’s opponents as the truck in the film “Duel”.

Grass roots opposition to this is now almost universal. Most of us can see what a pointless exercise this is and how absurd it is beginning to look. The absurdity is epitomised by the GMC recommendations on feedback. This is so obviously a waste of time, lots of time, but those idiots at the GMC can’t see it. True to form that fool Dickson is spouting enthusiastically about this. Isn’t it worrying that the GMC is run by a man so intellectually impaired that he actually thinks this is a good idea.

When it comes to feedback the data collected will be worthless for two simple reasons. Firstly feedback from the punters is almost always going to be positive, and I have commented on this before. Secondly, as for feedback from colleagues, would any of you out there actually drop one of your colleagues in the shit? If so that says more about you than the subject. And are you actually going to seek feedback from someone you don’t get on with? Or are you going to all get down the pub together, fill out your own forms and have your mates sign them?

Even the BMA is waking up to the appalling car crash that this is going to be and have expressed many very valid criticisms.

But the BMA don’t yet seem to have cottoned on to the fact that the profession could stop the whole process dead in it’s tracks, as I have explained before. Wake up you bastards, and send this truck over the cliff.

Perverts, update

Further to my last post a new search phrase has brought someone to DZ blog today. "are nurses easy lays?" I don't quite know why google thinks I would have the answer. Perhaps one or two of my readers would know. How about you Grumpy, are you an easy lay?

Perverts

Another blogger, the angry medic I think, recently remarked how he occasionally looks at the search words people enter into google that bring them to his blogg. I’ve never really noticed this but over the course of a few weeks I have been looking. Among others these search terms have appeared;

     Mature hairy

     Enlarged clit

     oops tits

     anal dilatation

     spanking

     boys spanking stories

     Naturist women beach

Don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Yet more DIY

One of the founding principle of the NHS was that it should be free at the point of use. Over the years this principle has been nibbled at around the edges. Charges do now apply for eye tests & spectacles, prescriptions, and of course dentistry. That is if you can even find a dentist who provides NHS dental care.

One of the ways in which the punters can be encouraged into “patient self care” is by making them pay for the real thing. So here is an example from dentistry to warm the heart of Mike Farrer.