IS THE GMC RACIST ? PART 2
Recent GMC decisions
https://www.gmc-uk.org/concerns/hearings-and-decisions/gmc-decisions#Warnings
WE HAVE EDITED OUT THE SURNAMES AND JUST LEFT IN THE FIRST NAMES SO YOU CAN TAKE A GUESS ON THE ETHNICITY OF THESE DOCTORS - WARNINGS ARE A MUCH LESS SEVERE SANCTION THAN UNDERTAKINGS - CAN YOU SPOT THE ETHNICITY BIAS?
Warnings
December 2022
Undertakings
December 2022
November 2022
September 2022
August 2022
SHOULD STEALING A COAT END YOUR CAREER?
Generate excitement
NHS doctor filmed stealing patient's coat because 'it was cold outside' to keep her job
Dr Rajashree Chavan took the coat from Lister Hospital (pictured) (
Image: East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust)
Dr Rajashree Chavan was caught on CCTV smuggling a coat out of Lister Hospital in Stevenage, and when questioned by police she said "it was cold and she wanted protection from the weather"
Dr Rajashree Chavan took the coat from Lister Hospital (pictured) (Image: East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust)
ByTim HanlonNews Reporter
- 02:50, 2 Jan 2023
An NHS consultant stole a coat as she went home from a shift at a hospital and later told police it was because "it was cold and she wanted protection from the weather", a disciplinary hearing was told.
Anaesthetist Dr Rajashree Chavan was caught on CCTV smuggling the item of clothing belonging to a patient's mother from Lister Hospital, in Stevenage, on January 25, 2021.
When questioned by a police officer she said she had "borrowed" the coat "because she wanted protection from the weather".
The senior medic has avoided being struck off for her dishonesty and has instead been told she will be suspended for three months.
The Medical Professionals Tribunal Service hearing was told that CCTV footage showed Dr Chavan spotting the coat - which was said to have 'sentimental value' to its owner - hanging in a hospital hallway, and then touching and moving the item before exiting the area.
Dr Chavan has been a Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists since 2010 ( Image: PA)
Returning later, the doctor is then seen carrying a bag containing the coat, which had been hidden under another item placed at the top of the bag, over the stolen item.
The hearing determined that as Dr Chavan did not know to whom the coat belonged, she could not have been planning to return it and would have known that the theft would distress the owner.
The tribunal heard that the item belonged to a patient's mother, who said she was left feeling 'sick' when she learned the identity of the thief.
She had been attending the hospital with her son when her coat was stolen by Dr Chavan, who has been a Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists since 2010.
In a witness statement, the victim of the theft - who is referred to only as Ms A - said: "I don't suppose it matters who stole my coat, but I feel a bit disappointed that it was a doctor, particularly, when a doctor is supposed to be in a position of trust.
"It makes you question a doctor's character and I am not sure that I could trust a doctor to look after me or my son.
"You're supposed to be able to trust the doctors and I felt sick when I found out that it had been a doctor who had stolen my coat."
The tribunal said that the incident had clearly had a 'serious impact' on the victim, and added: "Although Dr Chavan could not have known that the coat had sentimental value to Ms A, she would have known that it either belonged to a patient or a family member of a patient, or to a fellow member of the hospital staff."
Dr Chavan accepted a Community Resolution Order after she attended Stevenage Police Station in February 2021 to answer questions about the theft.
letter in response
Sir –
You appear to have been misled by the regulator of the medical profession in the UK, the General Medical Council (GMC) and the Medical Professionals Tribunal Service (MPTS), in your recent report from one of their disciplinary tribunal hearings; (‘Doctor keeps her job after stealing coat from hospital’, report January 2nd). While the regulator of the medical profession controls whether doctors can practice medicine or not, yet an entirely different body employs physicians, namely the NHS. The GMC is a regulator not an employer. NHS employers often take a follow-up punitive view of any GMC sanction, which can, and often does, end a career, not just a job, even after a temporary GMC suspension sanction is supposedly over. The imposed 3 months suspension of this doctor, who has already served a community resolution order from the police, now some two years ago, was, according to the tribunal, ‘appropriate and proportionate’. Yet it is indeed entirely possible that the NHS may no longer employ any doctor when they suffer such an adverse finding against them, and, as the NHS is basically a monopoly employer of doctors in the UK, any hostile reaction by an NHS employer to a GMC finding, basically terminates a medical career. After the three-month suspension is over, most doctors facing this kind of punitive action may never get a job in the NHS again. It can also be impossible to obtain professional medical indemnity insurance (which is necessary to obtain employment), once there is an adverse GMC finding against you. Or it can become prohibitively expensive. This is yet another route by which a doctor’s life-long calling is often terminated by our regulator. Given this doctor has already faced a sanction from the courts, the GMC follow up action may now axe her ability to earn a living from her medical degree. And all this after she has already served her punishment, as metered out by the criminal justice system. If this doctor can’t get employment after this finding, she will have been punished three times, first by the criminal justice system, then by the medical regulator (who took two years to punish her and that length of time means the process also becomes a punishment, so make that four times), and then finally by the NHS. Does this appear to anyone at all ‘appropriate and proportionate’? The GMC is clearly not fit for purpose as a recent editorial in the British Medical Journal concluded.