The wheels are falling off the Wakefield Witch Hunt - GMC loses High Court action

[Baron von Lotsov]

Here is a good bit of news today.

A High Court judge quashed the finding of professional misconduct against Professor Walker-Smith, who had carried out some of the tests for the controversial paper that suggested a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.

The judge said the GMC fitness to practise panel's conclusion that Prof Walker-Smith was guilty of serious professional misconduct was flawed in two respects.

There had been "inadequate and superficial reasoning and, in a number of instances, a wrong conclusion".

The decision to strike off had been defended at a recent hearing as "just and fair – not wrong" by Joanna Glynn QC, appearing for the GMC.

She said: "In spite of inadequate reasons it is quite clear on overwhelming evidence that the charges are made out."

But the judge disagreed and said the misconduct finding and the sanction of erasure – striking off – "are both quashed".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/ch...truck-off.html

The GMC panel's verdict followed 217 days of deliberation, making it the longest disciplinary case in the GMC's 152-year history. In 2004, the Lancet announced a partial retraction, and 10 of the 13 authors disowned it.

The system is always right, even when it is wrong, unless that is you have balls of steel.

[Tim the plumber]

We really need to end the idea of professions regulating themselves. Doctors with god complexes are probably the worst people to try to be impartial.