Dr Michael Webberley

[DomesticatedZombie]

• haven't had a chance to keep an eye on his tribunal, but from what I'm reading:

'Dr Michael Webberley applied for voluntary erasure from the GMC register. The Tribunal say it is "unfortunate" that was not determined prior to the hearing today.

MW had two requests for postponement declined & has now provided new medical evidence for an adjournment'

twitter.com/tribunaltweets2

Apologies! that was my mistake - I found the post - the comments are on an older post from 2020. And still there.

@tabbycatstripy

I don’t think it’s just the money. I think it’s a genuine (if catastrophically mistaken) belief that the most important thing is for the child to experience the ‘right’ puberty.

I'd be more convinced about that if they hadn't already had a go at tapping into unmet demand from several other quite different groups, e.g. bodybuilders.

Agreed Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g. I'm utterly intrigued by the testosterone for men with a 'diagnosis' of hypogonadism. It appears that they have tapped into any stream that they can and the MO is always the same: quick phone call, type up some shitty notes inadequately, grab the cash and chuck them some drugs. I'm aware that not everything will be presented at the tribunal, they will only select charges that have the potential to stick. I wonder what other potential avenues they pursued.

I'd be more convinced about that if they hadn't already had a go at tapping into unmet demand from several other quite different groups

There's some discussion about their previous activities on these threads from 2019.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3588654-dr-mike-webberley-suspended

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3598778-Dr-Helen-and-Dr-Mike-Webberley-matters-of-public-record

Helen Webberley was previously involved in something called shadow prescribing which allowed Americans to take advantage of the lower drug costs in the UK.

It does seem to be all about the money, which seems odd for two people who must have had a pretty decent income already.

It's all relative, I suppose. I've always thought of medicine as a well paid profession, but I used to know a very senior consultant with a large and lucrative income stream from doing court reports in addition to his NHS job, and his view was that medicine was badly paid in comparison with a job in the City. My view is that jobs in the City of London are obscenely overpaid and if I ruled the world that would be dealt with. Maybe the Ws were of the same mind as my chum and felt entitled to a lot more money than their NHS jobs could bring in.

I absolutely think it was all about the money

Honestly, regardless of where you fall on the trans women are women spectrum, you should want this bunch of grasping reckless snake oil salesmen closing down and striking off the register.

The daughter of a former friend of mine was a patient of the Webberleys. She was under 16 when they started prescribing testosterone to her - I think she’d been on PBs since 13/14.

When HW was struck off, my former friend went on a raging FB rant about “fucking T**Fs” and her primary concern was where was she going to get her daughter’s drugs from now? There was literally no recognition that there was a problem with HW or that her daughter was entitled to expect a higher quality of care. It was all the evil radfems’ fault for persecuting her daughter’s saviour, apparently.

(That’s a big part of why we’re no longer friends.)

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

It's all relative, I suppose. I've always thought of medicine as a well paid profession, but I used to know a very senior consultant with a large and lucrative income stream from doing court reports in addition to his NHS job, and his view was that medicine was badly paid in comparison with a job in the City. My view is that jobs in the City of London are obscenely overpaid and if I ruled the world that would be dealt with. Maybe the Ws were of the same mind as my chum and felt entitled to a lot more money than their NHS jobs could bring in.

I remember reading about a manager in one of those city jobs - was a while ago so no idea if still the same. They are gambling with huge sums of money but many employees would reach a plateau where they felt they had enough income not to take more risks. So as manager he would set about upping their expectations of spending - recommending bespoke tailors, expensive holidays, nights out with thousands spent on drinks...

I vaguely remember that they started off providing Clomid to anyone who wanted it, no questions asked

They did, there are old threads on the conception board where Oxford Online Pharmacy was recommended.

From Tribunal Tweets this morning. RQ is an endocrinologist who has been asked to give expert evidence by the GMC. He's currently talking about the testosterone for hypogonadism issue and he's straight in there with an observation:

SJ: We can see patient summary and a health questionnaire repeated for all patients. We see personal info at the top, questions about GP and box 'please indicate services interested in'. We see some boxes for men and women (lists)

SJ: can you go through them and the difference
RQ: first I will say I feel it's terrifying without a diagnosis made and there's already a shopping list of treatments the patient can decide from..

Followed by:

RQ: Growth hormones should only be prescribed by consultant Endo..it is not something that should remotely appear on a shopping list for the general population

RQ: ...the assumption is the testes were normal to start with and fertile...what on earth are you doing giving testosterone, this will lower sperm count and fertility.

RQ: estrogen is important to men as well as women, for bone density and libido, but if too must T you can overload system and more of that T gets metabolised into estrogen which will cause breast development.

RQ: we know that T treatment in excess causes fluid retention and some of his writings he's using the drugs to mitigate fluid retention.
SJ: when you say he?
RQ: Dr Webberley, he's causing a problem with one drug and using another drug to try to resolve it..

RQ:.. and that could drop the bone density. I mean, Wow that is balancing, a tightrope act and trying to fool the human body. I'm not a betting men but I know who will win on that.

I can't C&P it all but I would absolutely recommend giving the twitter thread a read. This endo sounds absolutely outraged and is not holding back at all.

RQ: it's almost exploitative, this is a vulnerable person was a difficult stage in his life and instead of help he gets banged full of hormones. There's no indication for it based on history and blood tests

^ this is still in relation to testosterone for men with hypogonadism (which they didn't have).

I wonder if this is why MW isn't there. How do you defend that? The whole thing is utterly appalling. This is about Doctors doing what they damn well want to make money regardless of the consequences.

He’s getting eviscerated here.

Medicine can be well paid but it absolutely depends on what specialty you pick in the first place (I made a massive mistake there!).

Specialties that do elective procedures you can pick up extra work by doing waiting list initiatives in the NHS. Or the big money is in private work.

However not everyone is going to do private work even in the specialties that can. Someone like a salaried GP - not actually that well paid given the difficulty of the job. Equally doing the on-call gastro rota - rubbish money for always being available at a moment's notice. They must have thought they had found the golden ticket.

this is a vulnerable person was a difficult stage in his life and instead of help he gets banged full of hormones

‘It’s like the patient just says “I have gender dysphoria” and MW just agrees.”

(Professional endocrinologist - 2022)

RQ: Dr Richard Quinton - expert witness:

' in terms of assessment, I can't see evidence of anything there really. He seems to cut and pate info by the patient plus info from counsellor. Doesn't seem to be any due diligence.'

'RQ: He's faced with evidence that's weak, hasn't been verified, hasn't drilled down, it's worrying. It's like the patient has almost said 'I have gender dysphoria' and MW just agrees'

And this, but it's better read in the round. He's onto 'trans children' now and MWs expertise to work with these children:

SJ: What skills does MW have to undertake this?
RQ: none whatsoever
SJ: What history?
RQ: No useful exposure at all or doing practice...its simply not part of a physician. Unless a radical change in career and a period of significant retraining.

'it created the appearance but there wasn't any any clinically meaningful follow up'

'It's still disturbing to read it now'

'RQ: The evidence for PBs has only arisen for children 13 and over. There's no research for a child aged 9, the fact he calls it straightforward is hugely concerning to me in terms of his insight, or lack of'

RQ is a Consultant Endocrinologist

‘RQ: the evidence doesn't support that patients commit suicide. How can you be dysphoric with something that hasn't happened (puberty). They at least need puberty to commence.’

The evidence doesn’t support Mermaids/Stonewall suicide narratives.

I'm also not completely sure the evidence supports PBs age 13 plus, tbh, but that's another argument, I suppose.

‘It’s all happy clappy talk. Nothing I would recognise as a mental state examination.’

I love this guy.

RQ:' this is extraordinary. There's almost no indication of prescribing PBs to a child of 9. This is exceptional for special paediatric endocrinology. It would be exceptional for a gender service and initiated by a doctor without TG knowledge or paediatrics...I'm speechless'