Your report on allegations of medical negligence by two consultant surgeons who lost their jobs after whistleblowing about patient safety (Police investigate dozens of deaths at hospital in Brighton, 9 June) describes the involvement of the British Medical Association (BMA), the police and the NHS regulator, the Care Quality Commission. It is striking, therefore, that there is no mention of the doctors’ regulator, the General Medical Council (GMC), showing any interest.
If medical negligence is alleged, and if senior doctors in management allegedly colluded over the scandal, then these are surely legitimate areas of interest for the GMC?
But physicians have become so disillusioned by the random or biased nature with which the GMC decides to investigate that they are now planning a vote of no confidence in the council at the BMA’s annual conference next month. There is also a petition on the parliament website calling for the GMC to be dismantled from its current form.
Various NHS scandals where patients in large numbers die due to medical negligence over the years have been met with a deafening silence from the GMC.
Raj Persaud
Consultant psychiatrist, London
