Friday 7 December 2007

David Southall attacks 'flaws' in GMC panel

Full Story:
http://www.stopinjusticenow.com/News_0660.htm
Professor David Southall, the disgraced paediatrician, yesterday attacked "serious flaws" in the disciplinary process that led to him being struck off the medical register. Prof Southall was found guilty this week of serious professional misconduct by the General Medical Council's fitness to practise panel. He was alleged to have falsely accused a mother of murdering her child and and to have removed children's medical files without permission. In his first interview since the ruling, he claimed that his prosecutors lacked the necessary qualifications. "The GMC... had four panellists who made a decision on an incredibly complicated set of circumstances surrounding child protection - three of them were lay and one was an orthopaedic surgeon," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "They had had no training in child protection before they were discussing such serious issues with doctors. 'I think this is where the problem is. It's not doctors against doctors." Prof Southall denied accusing the mother, referred to as Mrs M, of murdering her 10-year-old son by drugging him and stringing him up by his belt. He said he had put a series of "scenarios" to her, but had discounted the idea of murder in his own mind. "These things are part of an interview, that paediatricians regularly discuss with parents when a child presents an injury,' he said. Prof Southall blamed the media for turning him into a "hate figure" and said there was a "vindictive campaign" against doctors who were trying to protect children. The governing body had banned Prof Southall from working on child abuse cases for three years in 2004 after he wrongly accused the husband of Sally Clark of murdering their two sons.

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