Dr Andrew Wakefield, The MPS and RadcliffesLeBrasseur

As you know Dr Andrew Wakefield, of MMR fame, is the centre of attention in a Professional Conduct hearing at the GMC at the moment. The MPS as ever are in Dr Wakefield's corner. Why wouldn't they be as his defence body? However, who else is in the corner with them? Dr Dudley appears to be. It was him who supported the disatrous attempt by RadcliffesLeBrasseur to issue proceedings for defamation against Brian Deer, the Sunday Times Journalist, and Channel Four. Having issued proceedings RadcliffesLeBrasseur then used the writ as an instrument to force small newspapers, such as the Cambridge Evening News, to back off printing any story about Dr Wakefield. Mr Justice Eady eventually found them out and Andrew Wakefield had to drop his case and RadcliffesLeBrasseur and the MPS had to pay up. The question is has that deterred them from still batting on a sticky wicket for Andrew Wakefield? Perhaps not, for Robert Vallings a partner at RadcliffesLeBrasseur has recently written a letter to his own regulatory body, who are investigating Ralph Shipway, another of RadcliffesLeBrasseur's solicitors, stating that Dr Surendra Kumar will be the first witness to vouch for RadcliffesLeBrasseur. You may ask who is Dr Surendra Kumar apart from being the chairman of BAIPO. He is the chairman of the GMC's own professional conduct panel which is sitting to determine the fate of Dr Andrew Wakefield. If Robert Vallings is correct in his assertion then that suggests that the MPS and RadcliffesLeBrasseur have also managed to get Dr Surendra Kumar in Andrew Wakefield's corner. This panel is compromised.

Dr Mark Dudley and Dr Tushar Bhadra

I was disturbed to discover the story of Dr Tushar Bhadra and way in which he had been treated by the Medical Protection Society. Dr Bhadra is an Indian doctor who relied on the MPS to represent him properly when he was accused of misconduct by the GMC in 1998. The difficulty for Dr Bhadra was that he had successfully claimed against his employer earlier. The employer paid him damages as a result of his being racially abused by his consultant who told him to go home to India amongs other things. After that things were difficult for Dr Bhadra who was obliged to earn his living by locum work. However not very far behind him were his enemies so it seemed as he was subsequently accused of not treating a patient in a casualty unit properly and changing his CV. It appears and Dr Bhadra has always maintained that he did not treat the patient wrongly and is supported in this and he didn't falsify his CV either but the GMC or the former employer may well have done. It seems at the time of the hearing and subsequently the MPS and RadcliffesLeBrasseur didn't represent him properly, behaved as if they disbelieved him which is quite common for them, and allowed him to be tied up in a never ending circle of trying to fulfill the GMC's conditions on his suspended registration for a number of years, which requred him to retrain but on the other hand never being given the chance to retrain. The nub of the matter came to a head over the years and at one point Dr John Hickey former CE of the MPS invited Mrs Bhadra in and tried to persuade her, quite wrongly, to get Dr Bhadra to give up his cause. Eventually Dr Bhadra was supported in his assertions by another solicitor's firm that RadcliffesLeBrasseur had been negligent. Of course they should have settled with him then but Ralph Shipway of RadcliffesLeBrasser visited Dr Bhadra at his house unexpectedly to pour oil on troubled waters. Last year the GMC erased Dr Bhadra almost by default and the MPS should now be representing him to get his registration back. This is where Dr Dudley comes in. He seems to be representing Dr Bhadra with Juliette Mellman-Jones of Berryman Lace Mawer. How effective this will be remains to be seen because now Dr Bhadra has a race relations case against the GMC. Dr Dudley refuses to give him any support in this although I think he should and so do other doctors. The MPS and Dr Dudley in particular do not want to challenge the GMC because for them Dr Bhadra is an embarrassment. Basically they were negligent but when it comes to it if they have been negligent in the handling of a doctor's case with the GMC as they have with Dr Bhadras then they will never do anything to help if as in this case Dr Bhadra is winning against the GMC. What they are really frightened of is the GMC pointing out in a tribunal or court that it is not just the GMC who has been wrong but that the MPS and their solicitors, RadcliffesLeBrasseur, have contributed to this wrong by their inadequate and negligent representation of the doctor. in that way the MPS always walks away from their negligence and their responsibility to put it right. I suggest to you doctors reading this that the MPS is an organisation which is dishonest and will go to any lengths not to honour its commitment to doctors, and this is especially the case if the doctor is from overseas. Dr Dudley is in the forefront of holding the line for the MPS. Do not join the MPS. They will renege on their duty towards you in order to cover up. Join the MDDUS instead and insist that if you are in trouble you will not be represented by RadcliffesLeBrasseur.