Dr Mike Webberley suspended

[Brighterf]

Seems like Dr Mike Webberley has now also been suspended and he and his wife now plan to take their services overseas. Can't see this reported elsewhere yet though.

www.gaystarnews.com/article/mike-webberley-suspended-trans-kids/

My further guess, and it is only a guess, is that he started by being aware of the Webberley Belize linked money making machine

It can't be that since the W's didn't acquire their off-the-shelf Belize company until this year.
Maybe David Davies just paid more attention to the issues because his constituency was involved. Or maybe he has dealt with constituents' complaints? I'm thinking of the report Popchyk posted couple of pages back.

Sorry, just looked on a map. Yes, presumably southern parts are now Bristol commuter belt.

Davies' twitter feed gives the impression of rural, even parochial, and with no comments on the rare GC posts. I assume that he is more than aware that he is unlikely to attract ex-labour GC voters anyway. Which raises the question of why he is doing it. I believe him when he says because it is the right thing. But why has he did he go down the rabbit hole?

I am sure that there are plenty of other GC MPs. James Kirkup has said as much. However, as we have seen in the case of Lord Moonie and GC SNPs, accusations of transphobia equate to homophobia (because the T is right there with the LGB) and so effectively political kryptonite.

I now think he started by knowing about the Webberleys, who live in his constituency. Rather than follow the money, he started with the money, and then where it came from.

I've been wondering the same thing. Whether it was more than coincidence that the only MP openly speaking out against the trans agenda is the MP for the constituency where the Webberleys are based. All this going on in his back yard must have made him sit up and take notice.

Doctoress, yes but the Gulf mole stuff dates back to 2015. I would have thought it credible that on one of his visits to a local hospital someone alerted him to their concerns about online GPs, and their home grown example. Maybe in the trans context, but perhaps elsewhere.

(I read something recently about how easy it was to get prescriptions for opiod painkillers via online pharmacies, and there is no indication on the Clear Chemist website that their on-line doctor limited themselves to gender hormones.)

My guess is still that he fell down a Monmouthshire rabbit hole.

I just did a search to try to find out when the Webberleys started this money-making operation, and I found this from October 7, 2014.

bangordailynews.com/2014/10/07/health/british-pharmacy-chain-launches-online-drugstore-for-maine-consumers/

This particular operation seems to have been a way to make money from NHS prescriptions, selling the drugs on to customers in the USA who would normally pay a lot more for them.

The Maine Pharmacy Association, joined by the Retail Association of Maine, highlighted U.K. regulations that prohibit U.K. pharmacists from supplying medicines for prescriptions based in the U.S.

“Great British Drug Store is violating both U.S. and U.K. laws,” the groups said in a statement Wednesday.

O’Brien said both U.S. and U.K. legal counsel consulted with U.K. regulators and have signed off on the operation. Customers must fill out a health questionnaire on the site, which will be reviewed by a U.K. physician with 20 years of experience, Dr. Helen Webberley. If Webberley finds no problems, she will recreate each prescription for the U.K., O’Brien said.

“Patients are legally allowed to import, we’re legally allowed to export, we’re legally allowed to dispense,” O’Brien said.

By selling medications to Mainers at prices patients pay in Britain — which negotiates drug costs under the publicly funded National Health Service — Great British Drugstore can offer steep discounts, O’Brien said.

The timing of the Belize venture is significant though. Mike W's hearing was on 8 April, and they acquired the Belize company on 17 April. As far as I can see, all their other businesses are UK registered.

This particular operation seems to have been a way to make money from NHS prescriptions, selling the drugs on to customers in the USA who would normally pay a lot more for them.

How entrepreneurial of them. Or maybe they just really, really wanted to help patients in the USA .

As far as I can see, all their other businesses are UK registered.

They seem to be, but who knows if they have other offshore registered companies. The Belize one is linked to one of their UK companies on the Companies House site, and is also declared on the Gender GP website. Without those links it would not have been obvious that they had a Belize-based company.

The link from the Dubai article goes to MyWebDoctor, so you'd assume that if that referred to the UK company, that some money might be flowing in and out of it. But on the Companies House site, that company is listed as active, but all the accounts are for a 'dormant' company, with no money going through it. So I assume that if she made any money in Dubai or elsewhere it was also going through an offshore company.

This research is bloody dynamite. Well done you laydees.

I didn't realise David Davies was the Webberley's MP, makes sense why he is the one putting his head above the parapet and standing up for common sense. I wonder how many constituents, concerned still registeted lwgitimate Dr's, parents etc have contacted him in the past about the dodgy money grabbing quacks. Makes a lot of sense now, good on him!

For the patients and parents nothing matters more than access to meds. That much is becoming clear. They're willing to overlook everything and anything else.

From the 2014 article shared by OldCrone, the final comment so important:

"But McCall remains unconvinced that the new site is safe for Maine consumers. Foreign online pharmacies that operate outside the purview of the FDA and state regulators provide little accountability, potentially leaving customers with no recourse if they order drugs that harm them, he said.

“You can make any claims you want online,” McCall said."

When did Dr Helen Webberley start the online business GenderGP?

Bloody hell.

Which raises the question of why he is doing it

David Davies was interviewed last year.
During the interview he describes the levels of pressure on him not just from TRAs but also Conservative colleagues:

twitter.com/talkRADIO/status/1052203110335217664

Its alsoimportant to remember the circumstances of the lobbying of Millwall Football Club to prevent Venice Allan's 'We Need To Talk' event from taking place.

David Davies hosted the event at Westminster & so heard speeches from radical feminists including Sheila Jeffries.

He also then experienced first hand the bullying and intimidatory practices of some TRAs.

He has been making significant contributions to parliamentary discussions about the impact of housing of male prisoners in female estate prior to Karen White and was responsible for securing the Westminster Hall discussion.

I think the majority of MPs if they actually attended one of the women's meetings & listened, would start to become pro-active and increasingly aware. That's why preventing MPs from attending or hearing what's said is so important to some

Last night's WPUK meeting being a particular case in point.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3552619-WPUK-meeting-in-London-20-May-with-Meghan-Murphy-Julie-Bindel-Selina-Todd

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3396459-David-Davies-MP-speaks-out-about-harrassment-calls-for-stop-to-GRA-reform-urgent-review-involving-womens-groups#prettyPhoto

From another article about the US prescribing business:

www.mainepublic.org/post/british-virtual-drugstore-offers-maine-consumers-cheaper-prescriptions

McCall says Great British Drug Store itself violates U.K. law, which prohibits pharmacists there from filling prescriptions from doctors in the the U.S. But Great British Drug Store's Mary O'Brien says there's actually a legal work-around to that problem. "It's called shadow prescribing," she says.

Shadow prescribing works like this: A U.K. physician will review every order from Maine, and, if approved, will recreate the prescription and send it to be filled.

"Shadow prescribing". Never heard of this. Is it legal? This seems to have been Helen Webberley's part in this particular venture.

I think Mumsnet should actually become a newspaper. Posts here are consistently more informative, braver, more credible and better written than most of the content of the rags on the newsstands.

Top class investigative work, you lot.

I am doing too much thinking this morning. David Davies stepping in to rescue the WPUK event, and then continuing, made no sense. A right wing pro-Brexit MP relying on rural voters and no feminist background.

Yes, we and he are on the right side of history, but if we were to have sorted MP's into yes , no and maybe piles when deciding who to lobby he would have been a no.

Except, say, if he was already raising issues around GPs in his constituency, based on locally expressed concerns, either of patients or health professionals, but was told to back off because Mermaids and others were saying wonderful things about GenderGP and how important they were in supporting children with gender dysphoria whose own GPs would not prescribe.

Peak trans in an instant to most sensible people with some of the background revealed in this thread.

I'm not saying this is how it happened, but something obviously caused David Davies to want to shine a light on it all.

I am tempted to offer to help campaign for him. Parliament needs MPs with principle. Though not perhaps in the upcoming European elections.

I am doing too much thinking this morning. David Davies stepping in to rescue the WPUK event, and then continuing, made no sense.

It wasn't WPUK, it was Venice Allen's 'We Need to Talk' meeting.

I think there's a risk here of underestimating Venice Allen's organisational ability & misrepresenting what happened.

Sorry about the incorrect detail, and absolutely no desire to underestimate Venice, who has become another s/hero. The whole Millwall thing was about the time I was discovering this board.

But why David Davies, and what caused him to peak? I think the answer is in Monmouthshire. And I think it relates to "follow the money" concerns.

November 2018 thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3411533-talk-to-me-about-David-TC-Davies

This uk prescriptions for Americans thing.

Are UK taxpayers, via the NHS, subsidising American health care?

Have I got that right?

I dont think so.

The NHS as a bulk purchaser negotiates a special price with drugs companies. Drugs companies agree to this first because they save on advertising and marketing costs, but also presumably because they want their drugs available to the UK market. It is why you get stories about children being unable to access new and innovative drugs. The delays are often because the NHS are holding out for a good price.

Drugs bought by private prescription are then also cheaper than they would be in the US. However drugs companies will not be happy about Americans buying overseas, whether in the UK or somewhere like India. It may also be that there are conditions like drugs are only available for sale on the UK market.

This is how I understand it, so happy to be corrected.

Sorry, I’m a bit dim about prescription medication

So the prescription charge you pay doesn’t cover the full cost of the drug?

Oh yes, prescription charge is £9 per item, a significant difference to the cost of many drugs. So in the case of the webberley’s online pharmacy who would pick up the tab for the difference? The NHS?