Helen Webberley

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Looks like Helem Webberley's substantive case has finally been listed for 26th July 2021

www.mpts-uk.org/hearings-and-decisions/medical-practitioners-tribunals/dr-helen-webberley-jul-21

Thanks for your work on this Danial.

From those documents on the Twitter feed, it's all jawdropping, but this section stood out, towards the end.

The Daily Mail journos are really good at Saying The Thing without saying the thing.

I can't get my ;heard round how the proceedings work - it's not a jury, is a panel of medics? If she isi struck off is she then open to being accused of a crime? Or if she is struck off for wrong doing is that actually a crime in itself?

That bit is very odd.

I don’t know much about being a GP, but I can understand that somebody might let their membership of a professional body lapse and not update old details. However this seems to be an outright lie.

Bloody hell, Gasp0de.

Are there other medics who are not members of the appropriate Royal Colleges working in trans health ?

I couldn’t work out what it means to be qualified as a GP, but not a member of the RCGP - can anyone clarify?

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

From those documents on the Twitter feed, it's all jawdropping, but this section stood out, towards the end.

That RCGP thing?

Wow.

This is why we have the saying, nullius in verba - check everything with these people.

Have not checked this, but the impression I now have is that HW has a medical degree and has in the past worked as a GP, but if she isn't a member of the Royal College of General Practitioners, does that mean she never completed the specialist training to be a GP? Are the RCGP exams integral to that training? I used to work alongside psychiatrists and it appeared to be essential to pass the Royal College of Psychiatry membership exams during specialist training if you wanted to be a consultant. I had assumed it was similar for GPs.

I'm pretty certain she's never completed any other specialist training programme. Her husband was a consultant gastroenterologist.

Desperate but ill-informed patients, and in the case of patients who are minors, their parents, need to be protected. It's in nobody's interests for these powerful life-changing hormones to be prescribed by people who have no specialist training in endocrinology and who aren't making adequate arrangements for follow up.

Most GPs aren't members of the RCGP because it is a significant amount annually and many GPs disagree with its stance on some issues. You have to be amember to be a GP trainer but otherwise as a GP once you are qualified as a GP the only organisations you need to belong to to practise are the GMC and a medical defence body

@2Rebecca

Most GPs aren't members of the RCGP because it is a significant amount annually and many GPs disagree with its stance on some issues. You have to be amember to be a GP trainer but otherwise as a GP once you are qualified as a GP the only organisations you need to belong to to practise are the GMC and a medical defence body

So it seems to be an odd thing to claim if not true.

Thanks @2Rebecca I didn't know that. Working in a hospital setting being a member of the relevant royal college seems to be a big thing for consultants.

Are there other medics who are not members of the appropriate Royal Colleges working in trans health ?

Is there a way to check membership of royal colleges? It's easy to log into the GMC or NMC to check that professionals are on the register but I didn't know about the Royal colleges before.

From a health care professional pov, to practice (in one of the many professions) you have to be registered with the HCPC. This is about fitness to practice and professional standards. Separate to that there is a professional body but one does not have to belong to this, though it does give numerous benefits to do so.

If a HCPC has to attend a hearing in regards to fitness to practice then it will be held in front of a panel, with the decision made as to the future of professional registration. This is not a criminal event, though may follow a criminal conviction.

I'd imagine the GMC works on a similar basis.

As for membership of the RCGP I'd think that wasn't a public list, I can be looked up the HCPC register, but no public record on my professional body.

I am also a healthcare professional. Registration with your regulator is mandatory for most healthcare professions. Membership of a professional body is optional. There are several that I could join if I wished to. There are various benefits of membership but it is not mandatory.

To me the key point is that she lied about it.

@WarriorN

To me the key point is that she lied about it.

Yep, it's quite a strange thing to lie about.

A lot of people embellish their CV, but to put it in a signed witness statement to the interim orders tribunal as well seems foolhardy. Presumably, she thinks it sounds impressive and somehow enhances her standing. Obviously, that is not the case if the powers that be find that the claim isn't in fact true. She must have been counting on people not to check, or the royal college not to answer.

@vivariumvivariumsvivaria

The Daily Mail journos are really good at Saying The Thing without saying the thing.

I can't get my ;heard round how the proceedings work - it's not a jury, is a panel of medics? If she isi struck off is she then open to being accused of a crime? Or if she is struck off for wrong doing is that actually a crime in itself?

The committee is made up of a lay member, a medical Dr and a legally qualified chair. But they are equal decision makers. If they find misconduct they will then go on to decide if HW is fit to practice. The committee have the power to impose sanctions, the worst of which would be erasure, but they could also decide to impose conditions or a period of suspension. This is completely separate to the criminal courts. It only looks at whether or not the doctor is fit to practice as a doctor.

The Daily Mail stated that HW was able to operate using an EU loophole.

Now that the UK have left the EU, does that mean that HW or affiliates have ceased being able to operate this business of providing medication to minors online?

@Cailleach1

The Daily Mail stated that HW was able to operate using an EU loophole.

Now that the UK have left the EU, does that mean that HW or affiliates have ceased being able to operate this business of providing medication to minors online?

This letter from the GPhC to Gender GP in Feb 2021states that...

You will note that our guidance highlights that working with prescribers who are not appropriately registered with the relevant UK professional regulator, and with prescribing services not based in the UK, could create significant extra risks for patients and the public. The guidance states that if the pharmacy’s service lawfully involves working with prescribers or prescribing services operating outside the UK, the pharmacy should make sure that they successfully manage the extra risks that this may create.

www.pharmacyregulation.org/sites/default/files/document/20210209_response_to_gendergp_.pdf

Which suggests to me that so long as the prescribers are UK based and registered with a UK regulator (HW failed to do this which lead to her prosecution I believe) then a business could operate. But I imagine that this is an area that most doctors will give the swerve (unless working for the NHS). It's a grey area, and it's highly likely to lead to complaints at some point down the road. Plus pharmacists are now on notice that they are being scrutinised. I'm not sure how this will have been affected by us leaving the EU though.

The Daily Mail stated that HW was able to operate using an EU loophole.

Sunday Times
Sunday May 19 2019
Andrew Gilligan
'Suspended GPs Helen and Mike Webberley move sex change clinic to Spain'

(extract)
"A private gender clinic that gave sex-change hormones to a 12-year-old is moving to Spain after both its doctors were suspended by the General Medical Council (GMC).

It will continue to dispense the drugs online from its new base in Malaga in what critics called a “dangerous loophole” in regulation.

Mike Webberley, a GP from Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, was suspended on Friday after the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service heard his work for three young trans patients fell below the standards of care expected of a registered doctor, and is currently banned from working in the UK.

His wife, Helen, had earlier been suspended after being criminally convicted in October for operating an unlicensed clinic. Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, the regulator, said she posed a “risk to patient..." (continues)
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/suspended-gps-helen-and-mike-webberley-move-sex-change-clinic-to-spain-55ldpc57g

An archived version of this article would be useful

NB in July 2019 In 2019 Andrew Gilligan left the Sunday Times ( he was senior correspondent) having being appointed transport adviser by the new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, based in the Downing Street policy unit.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Gilligan

Pharma Phorum
by Piotr Wnuk
'Online pharmacies putting profit before patients – BBC documentary
August 10, 2018
(extract)
"A BBC programme “Online Doctors Uncovered” revealed online pharmacy “sites putting profit before patient care” and highlighted the ease with which patients can obtain prescription-only medicines from “very dangerous” websites.

The programme and investigation led by Dr. Faye Kirkland, a GP and journalist, exposed a number of online prescribing sites which the BBC claimed are taking advantage of a regulatory loophole by using companies based outside of the UK to employ doctors.

As part of the programme, two volunteers obtained prescription only co-codamol and slimming pill Xenical (orlistat) – which the BBC claimed their GPs would be “highly unlikely” to prescribe.

Both volunteers were able to buy the medicines online by submitting false medical histories on sites online forms and finalising the purchase through a Romanian-based payment system.

Steve Field, chief inspector of General Practice at the Care Quality Commission (CQC), told BBC that websites that it does not regulate can be “very dangerous”.

However, the CQC currently has no jurisdiction over organisations registered outside England, and Field called for a “change in the law” to crack down on “services that offer care into England but are based abroad – and the risks that this can pose”. (continues)
pharmaphorum.com/news/bbc-reveals-online-pharmacies-secrets/

BBC Panorama
Online Doctors Uncovered

"Panorama goes undercover to reveal online doctor sites putting profit before patient care. In 2017 the Care Quality Commission issued a warning about the risks of buying drugs prescribed by doctors online. The programme discovers opiate-based painkillers and slimming tablets being sold to potentially vulnerable people and antibiotics being delivered across Europe in the face of warnings about resistance.

Dr Faye Kirkland, journalist and GP, meets the families of patients who have died after online consultations and exposes the sites running rings around the regulators"

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b3qb74

Thanks for that information, @2Rebecca. So HW may have completed GP training after all. It's beyond me why in that case she should have said on her CV that she was MRCGP when she wasn't.

The other point that jumped out at me from the screenshot I posted earlier was this bit:

On 10 January 2017, durng an unannounced CQC inspection of Dr Matt Limited, you were the Safeguarding Lead and you:
(a) were unaware of the safeguarding policy;
(b) had never seen a copy of the safeguarding policy.

What?

From the Twitter thread:
Royal College or Gender Practitioners (RCGP). HW had passed her exam for this, but failed to apply to membership. SJ states there is evidence she did know she was not a member. He reads out correspondence.

(Assume typo of "of General" to "or Gender"! Correct name was given earlier! )

So she may have felt entitled to identify as a member despite not being one.

So she may have felt entitled to identify as a member despite not being one.

She'd have to be deeply stupid to think that RCGP would view things the same way.

I don't know much about membership of this professional body, but one of the functions of a professional body is to deal with complaints against members, and chuck people out when they don't comply with standards. It's not just about passing an exam.