The GDC And Suicides - A Masterclass In Evasion
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- Published: Wednesday, 07 June 2023 08:21
- Written by Peter Ingle
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The unedifying saga of the GDC and its unwillingness to consider the damage to registrant mental health and suicides related to its Fitness to Practice (FtP) process, has taken a new turn. Last year the GDC had promised to provide numbers of those taking their life during FtP, and to do this in the first half of 2023. After nearly six months and a month ahead of their self imposed deadline, they have now slipped out a convoluted justification for failing to meet their own promise.
They have also set up enough new conditions to kick the issue into the long grass, and there will be doubts that the promised data will ever appear. If it eventually does, it is likely to be after some of the current GDC senior management team have moved on, allowing them an exit untainted by what may emerge.
As GDPUK readers will know the GDC have resisted at every stage in the struggle to establish the human cost of FtP. At first they did not believe that information about suicides occurring during the process should be obtained, even when the GMC committed to doing just that. They said it would be too difficult. It would be too expensive. It would be unrepresentative. It would be a confidentiality issue.
Then in early November 2022 there was a 180 degree turn, announced via a little seen blog from the GDC’s Executive Director, Strategy, Stefan Czerniawski. After a preamble in which the opportunity was not missed to blame many of the failings of the FtP process upon, “our over-prescriptive legislation,” he wrote: “Because there has been concern about the matter, we think it is appropriate to develop an accurate picture of the prevalence of suicide while a fitness to practise case is active. We intend to do that in the first instance by undertaking a research project to collect data for the period 2019 - 2021 and publishing a report of this in the first half of 2023.”
Since then, there have been Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to try and get some information about the GDC’s progress with this project. Following the familiar GDC tactic of not responding to an initial request, a second one drew the reply that the Council had begun “scoping the work.”
Stefan Czerniawski’s Latest blog was misleadingly entitled, “Progress on reporting the cause of death of registrants who have died while fitness to practise concerns are investigated.” It did not take him long to get to the point, actually there has not been any real progress. He wrote: “The work we have done so far has identified some additional areas of complexity in gathering and interpreting evidence. We need to consider carefully how best to address those issues, so as to be sure that we are being led by the evidence and drawing on expert advice on interpreting and presenting the data. As a result, it will take longer than we had originally anticipated to collect and review.” There then followed a remarkably detailed list of all the conceivable difficulties in arriving at the number of registrants taking their life during FtP.
The blog was supported by a much longer document described as an “Evidence review,” which expanded upon the challenges they faced. It concluded with a list of over 50 references. The GDC have already provided figures showing that there were a total of 16 registrant deaths during FtP in the period that they had promised to look into, 2019 to 2021. After six months they have not been able to ascertain how these registrants died. They have though managed to provide a long list of reasons why they cannot answer this question, which must have taken a great deal of time and effort. It is hard to see how, had this much effort been instead applied to making enquiries about the causes of those 16 deaths, that we would not now have the correct figures. The GDC have also waited until the deadline approached before admitting that they would not be able to meet it. There is now no timetable for the figures to be provided.
In summary the GDC have missed their own deadline. They have written a progress report that reports no meaningful progress. And after failing to provide any updates on their progress or lack of it over the last six months, Mr Czerniawski has the audacity to finish his blog with the words, “We will continue to provide updates as the work progresses.”
At the foot of Stefan Czerniawski’s latest blog comes the advice to:
“Reach out if you need some support. If you are affected by the issues discussed above, please reach out to the Samaritans.”
Which sums up the GDC’s commitment to date, to supporting registrant’s mental health during FtP.
Death reporting research project: Evidence review (gdc-uk.org)
The GDC and suicides
When I read the first sentence of this GDC 'progress report' it made me want to throw up. For the GDC to start telling us that "Last November we explained why we think it is appropriate for us to seek to identify deaths by suicide while a fitness to practise case is active", I am appalled by their patronising language and their less than honest approach to investigating this and being willing to address the very real tragedies which lie behind suicides.The GDC should be falling over themselves to work with registrants and the public to achieve a fairer and more open system and not be hiding behind imaginary difficulties.
'Considerable progress has been made', except not in the same universe as we occupy.
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