GMC Tries to Silence Blogger

A blogging doctor is facing investigation by the General Medical Council - for the heinous crime of linking to a document on another website. According to the Register, the GMC thinks the link, posted by Dr Rita Pal on her NHS Exposed Blog, may amount to a breach of confidentiality, even though the original document had already been published by another website and was effectively in the public domain.

Interestingly, the blogger who originally posted the controversial document today had this to say on the subject, in a post called Muzzling Academics, British Style : "Eventually, an anonymous reader forwarded me a copy of the transcript. I read through it, decided that the hearing was a rigged process, ascertained that the document was genuine and I posted it on my blog. This came roughly 10 days after I had posted the leaked Zyprexa documents on this blog. I then turned my attention back to Zyprexa matters and watched as hundreds of people began to download the Blakemore-Brown transcript. "

Clearly, the material that has the GMC in such a lather could hardly have been confidential if it had already been accessed by hundreds of people. Equally clearly, the GMC simply does not like the fact that the internet allows people - and particularly doctors - to blow the lid of dodgy dealings.

Certainly, they get very touchy when people blog about them, as Rita Pal has done many times. I've written about the GMC before, in fairly unflattering terms, and was amused to find them showing up in my logs almost immediately - presumably desperate to find out what was being said about them.

Anyone who's read those posts will have a pretty good idea of what I think about the GMC. For those who haven't, my opinion of the GMC can be very briefly summed up as: An incompetent, inefficient and largely irrelevant organisation with a vastly over-inflated opinion of its own importance and a penchant for hiring clueless, vindictive muppets in place of real staff.

Naturally, that doesn't apply to everyone at the GMC. There are some upstanding individuals who try to provide decent service to both the public and the doctors that they're supposed to regulate, but they are vastly outnumbered by lurching drones who manage to make a retarded mannequin look smart.

Through indirect dealings with this body spanning several years (no, I'm not a doctor), I have come to realise that there is almost no depth to which they are incapable of sinking as they bungle their way from creative misunderstanding, via bloody-minded and misplaced arrogance, to absurd conclusions that bear no relationship to the matter in hand, whatever that may be.

Even by their standards, however, this business of investigating a doctor for linking to a publicly accessible document is bizarre. But behind the bizarre lies the sinister, and it doesn't take much to figure out what the GMC's sinister ulterior motive may be in attempting to take Rita Pal to task over this issue.

Although Rita Pal was the first UK doctor to set up a controversial, NHS-critical website when she established the pioneering NHS Exposed in 2000, she has been followed by a small - but rapidly growing - army of medics. Blogs have made it quick and easy to publish their views online, for anyone to read, without the need for more than a smattering of technical knowledge.

Dr Crippen, Dr Rant and a whole host of others regularly say exactly what they think about the NHS, the GMC and other related issues. The commentary offered by all these websites will strike a hauntingly familiar chord with anyone who's ever had dealings with the NHS.

And, to be blunt, the GMC doesn't like. In fact, they hate it. The idea that doctors - the very people they're supposed to control - can openly criticise them goes right against the grain. Hence this seemingly ludicrous attack on Dr Rita Pal, the biggest, most outspoken critic of them all. In the GMC's tiny mind, they see this as an opportunity to strike back, to send a message to medical bloggers that they are watching, and they will act against anyone who rattles their cage too much.

After all, the web would be nothing without links - that's the whole point of it. If medical bloggers can't link to something that interests them without fear of the GMC popping up like the Spanish Inquisition, they may as well give up.

Of course, all responsible bloggers will check their facts before publishing a link, reviewing the material to see if it is reasonable, sustainable etc. But who could expect them to wonder whether a publicly available document, already published on another site, could be confidential? For that matter, ALL external documents could be confidential to someone - or, at least, someone could wish that they were, even though they are clearly not.

And that someone could then very easily make a complaint to the GMC, as has happened in this case, leaving the blogging doc to fight for their right to say anything at all. That takes months, is stressful, expensive, time consuming, and might even cost them their job! Who's going to risk all that for the sake of running a blog?

Well, thankfully, many people, including the indomitable Rita Pal, whose blog is still going strong. But the GMC's objective is clear - put the fear of Fitness to Practise in 'em, give 'em a taste of power-mad bureaucracy, and they'll shut up for a while.

Of course, it's not going to happen, and the Register's mention of the story has made sure of that. Bloggers are cover the story in their droves, and links to the article are sprouting around the web even now - free speech will not be subdued, no matter how much the GMC may wish to do so.

Billy Seggars.

Spy in the Tie

The long summer holidays are almost over, and, as always, the shops are full of "back to school" type goods. Everything from laptops to pencil cases, and, of course, school uniforms are on offer, but one company has come up with a new twist on the traditional school wear.

Trutex, a 130-year-old firm based in Clitheroe, Lancashire, is contemplating a line of school uniforms with built-in satellite tracking gadgetry, that would allow parents - and schools - to know where kids are at all times. According to this article in the Daily Mail, parents are keen to know that Little Johnny has made it to school in one piece.

Not an unreasonable desire in this day and age, but, I suggest, they could achieve the same result by personally delivering their spawn to the school and picking them up again later. Technology is a wonderful thing, but it is no substitute for actually being there for your kids, and it's a mistake to rely on it too much, anyway.

The idea of bugging your child's blazer might seem like a quick fix to one of the 21st Century's problems, but it overlooks several enormous shortcomings. Firstly, in cases of child abduction, it is usually the child that is kidnapped, not their blazer. And since the media will be alive with descriptions of the missing child and what it was last wearing, you can bet it won't be wearing it for very long.

Secondly, kids lose things. Blazers, pullovers etc., get dumped on floors, piled up and used as impromptu goal-posts, hung on the backs of chairs, taken off, put down and forgotten. Anyone wanting to rely on their kid having the bug with them at all times would be far better off looking to fix it permanently to the child rather than hiding it in their clothing. Failure to realise that is only going to lead to a false sense of security.

Thirdly, as they get older, kids like a little privacy and independence. Yes, I know, they want it perhaps before they're really old enough - and wise enough - to have it. But they want it, nonetheless, and they will go to great lengths to get it. It's already possible for worried parents to remotely monitor the location of a child's mobile phone - a fact which annoys the hell out of some kids, and may even encourage them to go out without this very useful means of calling for help if they really need it.

For kids who already feel over-protected (and note I'm not saying there's no need to protect them, just that some kids don't like it), tracking devices in their clothing may be the final straw that leads to rebellion against much-needed protection.

And even if it doesn't, this concept raises some significant privacy concerns. It seems to me that, for a society already more obsessed with surveillance than any other in the world, this is a dangerous step. It encourages youngsters (those who don't rebel, anyway) to feel comfortable with remote monitoring of their activities, which can never be a good thing. Privacy is already a scarce resource, and it is becoming more rare every day. If upcoming generations don't recognise its value, it will soon be a thing of the past - for, once it is lost, it will be practically impossible to regain.

Billy Seggars.

Vibrator Thief Caged

If you were going to commit an "armed" robbery, and didn't have a gun, what would you use instead? (KIDS! DO NOT try this at home - or anywhere!). Chances are, you'd find something around the house that looked slightly gun-like, and use that.

Whatever you chose, it would almost certainly be more suitable than the item picked by Nicki Jex, of Braunstone, Leicester, when he set out to rob his local Ladbrokes bookmakers. Jex, who was jailed for 5 years this week, grabbed his girlfriend's vibrator and concealed it in a carrier bag, then pretended it was a gun.

I don't think I've ever heard of a more unusual use for a sex toy! The BBC News article covering the hearing doesn't go into details, so we don't get to find out what kind of vibrator it was, but, unless it's of a pretty unusual design, you can bet it doesn't look very much like a weapon. Well, ok, not very much like a gun, anyway.

Nor does the article say whether Jex got a buzz out of it, or whether his girlfriend got her toy back after he was arrested. It's to be hoped so, since, after his cock-up with the vibe, she's going to be without his services for a while.

Billy Seggars.

Getting the Hump

According to this mind boggling article in the Daily Mail, an Australian woman was killed by a pet camel given to her as a 60th birthday present after the animal apparently tried to have sex with her.

Yes, I can imagine how having a 24-stone camel try to hump her would not do this poor woman any good at all, although the article says it's extremely rare for camels to actually kill people.

Nonetheless, a decision will be taken later this week on whether this randy animal should be destroyed. Although I have every sympathy for the victim and her family, I very much hope that the poor creature is allowed to live - after all, it's only young, and was only trying to do what comes naturally. Then again, I don't have much experience of camels, and may see things differently if one tried to mate with me.

Billy Seggars.

Ear to the Ground

According to this fascinating article in the Telegraph, students are using hidden earpieces to cheat in school exams.

Apparently, "The wireless earpiece is so small it cannot be easily seen. Students using the device in an exam hall could be silently called on their mobile phone by an accomplice outside while they could talk back to them via a tiny microphone sensitive enough to pick up whispers."

These gadgets, sold by a Canadian-based company, are specifically targeted at students, with a view to helping them cheat in exams.

Naturally, speaking as someone who has never in my life cheated in an exam, and, indeed, has never needed to, I deplore any means of fiddling the results. That said, cheating has always gone on, and always will. In the end, it's the student who loses out.

But I find it amazing that anyone sitting exams in the UK - certainly, GCSE and A'Level exams - should need to cheat. Face it, GCSEs are hardly rocket science; they are the result of years of inadequate education, leading to a dumbed down qualification that is barely worth the paper it's printed on. If today's students really need to cheat in order to pass one of these lightweight exams, they have far greater problems than the lack of moral fibre that allows them to contemplate dishonesty.

GCSE results for this year will be unveiled in a few days, and I fully expect the media to be full of the usual mixed bag of "better than ever results" and "easier than ever questions" stories - it's so predictable that it's almost become a tradition. I can't help wondering if the Telegraph article, which extensively quotes Isabel Nisbet, director of regulation and standards at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, is a sort of preemptive strike on behalf of the QCA to explain away another embarrassingly high pass rate.

Certainly, Ms Nisbet has previously worked for such disreputable organisations as the General Medical Council, and would therefore be familiar with the technique of damage limitation via the press, even if she did not indulge in such things on their behalf herself. Then again, I must say that I agree with her sentiments on these little contraptions when she says, "the way in which this device has been advertised is absolutely disgraceful."

Yes, it is. But it's even more disgraceful that today's school-leavers should feel the need to use one in the first place. Maybe, if we taught them properly, and quit worrying about stressing the little darlings, they'd be able to cope with a depressingly simple examination like the GCSE - goodness only knows how they're ever going to cope with real life!

Billy Seggars.