Statt Comm - more levels of discipline needed?

[admin]

Why do we only seem to have three possible Stattutory Committee decisions, i.e. nothing, reprimand or striking off? We could have a range of periods of suspension for example, or supervised periods of work, re-training etc etc etc.

I found this case on the internet. The GP has been suspended for nine months, and not had his career ruined (I'm not saying he doesn't deserve more!): -

A GP who ran internet consultations for patients was last week suspended for nine months by the GMC for irresponsible prescribing. Dr E was found to have acted irresponsibly, or not in the patient's best interests, in the cases of three patients and two undercover journalists who applied for prescriptions to his website,

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The most serious case, the GMC panel found, was that of a teenage boy, referred to as Patient A, who acknowledged in his online application that he was prone to self harm, smoked cannabis, entertained suicidal thoughts, and was in the care of child psychiatric services. Despite this Dr Eden gave him repeat prescriptions of propranolol without a face to face consultation. Patient A eventually overdosed on the drug, but he survived.

[Jeff]

Why do we only seem to have three possible Stattutory Committee decisions, i.e. nothing, reprimand or striking off? We could have a range of periods of suspension for example, or supervised periods of work, re-training etc etc etc.

Because
Unanswered questions

"At last the Government has come clean and explicitly said that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain — which has served the pharmacy profession well or well enough for nearly 170 years — is no longer fit for purpose."

Regulation as practiced by the RPSGB equates to punishment. It is not capable of representing pharmacists because it is not a trade union, and it's too scared to sugest that the investment made by the taxpayer in the education and training of pharmacists should be protected where possible.

Jeff