There is a lot in the media about Dr Brian Keighley. Everyone interested in the laudable write-ups can read the BBC here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-34770622 . For everyone else, he worked for the General Medical Council as well as the BMA. I first heard about Brian through Dr Jennifer Colman who was once on the GMC's prestigious committee. Jenny will be entertained by the fact I once sent a Freedom of Information request to the GMC requesting the amount of money they spent yearly on alcohol. The amount was eye-watering. Couldn't those working for the GMC just drink tap water? She had some tales to tell me that are probably not fit to write publicly. It is enough to say that his personal life was interesting. Its fascinating that those who make judgments of others have their own issues. The clues to the mysterious undercurrents of Brian Keighley are in this article here http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13958194.Shock_at_sudden_death_of_former_BMA_Scotland_chairman_Brian_Keighley/?ref=rss . The article stated "No further details were given about how he died". Isn't that interesting. I suspect everyone will wish to believe Brian was a respected member of society. Perhaps he was. Who knows. What is even more interesting is this:- "The BMA said under Dr Keighley, it played a key role in relation to hugely important public health issues. Dr Keighley was a prominent voice in advancing the case and supporting the Scottish Government’s drive for the minimum pricing of alcohol" If Jenny and I were still on speaking terms, I am quite sure we would be gossiping on this subject like women do. That said, I have something a little bit better. Brian Keighley was often found skulking around Doctors.net.uk and I am sure they will miss him terribly. I am quite sure the GMC will miss him as well. He was a well trained whistleblower hunter. No doubt being a screener for them while on Doctors.net.uk was useful for the GMC in many ways. In memory of Brian [and I really hope heaven blesses him with lots of Bells ringing everywhere], I decided to summon some extracts of court papers. These extracts relate to a well known whistleblower. So here we go, read this carefully as its quite a complex game play. In summary, these antics relate to a Race Relations claim against the British Medical Association. The BMA settled the claim. Keighley though happen to be working for the BMA and the GMC. Isn't it a coincidence that Mr BMA ended up on this whistleblower's case as screener. This is despite knowing full well the whistleblower had successfully sued the BMA. The vested interest was not disclosed. The description from the court is below. The material has been edited for clarity. 1. Dr X joins 4 other BME [Black & Minority Ethnic] doctors, in a ET-claim** (ET # 2404563/2003) for race-discrimination against his trade-union: the British Medical Association** (‘BMA’) for the BMA failing to represent them before their respective NHS employers properly /at all. Until 30.6.2003, BMA has had senior office bearers as members-trustees of the GMC. One of them was a Scottish GP named Dr Brian Keighley. 2.Trust’s medical director Dr Keith Alexander Sands (GMC # 1473971), who has never met Dr X, reports Dr X (known conspirational & hence unfair & illegal) ‘dismissal’ to the GMC. He re-discloses to the GMC the ‘Carr report’ that the GMC has rejected on 19.9.2002 and the Trust has rejected on 3.4.2003. 3. Under the Presidency / chief stewardship of Sir Graeme Catto (R2) GMC opens a new inquiry against Dr X (FPD/2003/1512). GMC fails to alert the complainant NHS Trust of (i) the ‘Carr report’ being rejected by the GMC earlier on 19.9.2002, (ii) Dr X professional obligation [to the GMC] of “Good Medical Practice” & their common ‘Public Interest’ to protect patients. 4. GMC also fails to notify Dr X that ‘having no longer in substantive contract with the NHS, he is no longer required to be registered with the GMC pursuant to s47(1) of the Medical Act, 1983. 5. Dr Brian Keighley (GMC # 1328428) is acting as GMC’s sole ‘medical screener’. Dr Keighley is a Scottish GP & Council Member [& Charity-trustee-respondent R3] at the GMC until sacked on 30.6.2003. He is a BMA** high office-holder and conceals his ‘conflict of interest’ (in harming Dr X livelihood) due to ongoing ET claim** X & 4 Ors v BMA (ET # 2404563/2003). 6. Despite the fact that 2 GMC-members had previously rejected the ‘Carr-report’ as ‘not a matter for the GMC’ (on 19.09.2002, written by Catherine Green) on the recommendation-memo by GMC’s same Mrs Catherine Green, Dr Brian Keighley adopts verbatim, Mrs Carr’s 8 fabricated ‘charges’ as GMC’s 9 ‘charges’ (the other being related to ‘working while suspended’ (statute-neutrally by a employer acting unlawfully, and not by the GMC!)! Dr Keighley, a GP, singlehandedly decides to escalate the ‘NHS-(employment-dispute)-complaint’ against Dr X [who is not a GP, but practicing as an independent Hospital Consultant] and refers the case to GMC’s internal ‘Preliminary Proceedings Committee’ (‘PPC’, which the GMC abolished on / from 1.11.2004) even when the NHS-complaint obviously had nothing to do with GMC’s statutory role to ‘protect patients’ from Dr X admittedly safe practice. 7. 5.12.2003 Five Council Members & Charity-trustees at the GMC [who have never met Dr X] Dr Elizabeth Bingham-Heitzman (chair) (R4), Prof. Roger Green (R5), Prof. Sir Roddy MacSween (R6), Prof. Arnold Maran (R7), Mr Bob Winter (R8) and Dr Andrew Fergusson (TR20, has admitted liability as GMC Charity-trustee in 1.2012) meet as the ‘PPC’. Contrary to earlier decision by 2 Council members (19.9.2002) and in known absence of any ‘matter for the GMC’, i.e., without any statutory ground [‘s1(1A)’] to act to ‘protect patients’ from Dr X admittedly safe practice, the PPC decide to escalate matters by referring the case onwards for a full public hearing before GMC’s ‘Professional Conduct Committee’ (‘PCC’), [which the GMC abolished on / from 1.11.2004]. The PPC also considers new fabricated & unsubstantiated allegations made by the GMC clerks alluding to ‘risk to patients’ as an excuse to refer Dr X to GMC’s ‘Interim Orders Committee’ (IOC) and seek an ‘interim order’ against Dr X registration to obstruct his means to earn his livelihood. 8. Contrary to what the GMC told its PPC, to date, the GMC has never opened a file on a Council Member & Charity-trustee at the GMC, or investigated Dr X complaint against the ‘anonymous medical screener’ Dr Brian Keighley (GMC # 1328428): the BMA office-holder with conflict of interest in harming Dr X livelihood due to ongoing ET claim** X & 4 Ors v BMA by his decision to progress the ‘NHS-complaint’ against Dr X. 9. [GMC kept secret from X, ‘medical screener’ Dr Keighley’s identity -and his close connection with the BMA-- till September 2006. To date, GMC has kept secret from Dr X, the identity[ies] of its ‘Medical / Health assessor[s]’ referred to in the PPC meeting]. 10. 23.12.2003 GMC’s solicitor Angela Breingan writes to ex-employer Trust’s medical director: “I would be very grateful if you would contact me on the direct dial number below as soon as possible to enable me to prepare a case for the GMC against Dr X.” Dr X does never receive any similar communication from any GMC staff re. his complaints against the 3 NHS-consultants to the GMC for putting patients’ lives at risk. 11. 20.4.2004 GMC closes without any investigation, Dr X complaints against the 3 NHS-consultants relating to the same facts of GMC case v Dr X (FPD/2003/1512). It also withholds from Dr X the relevant internal documents, screening memoranda and the identities of its decision-makers for 6 years. [When the GMC ultimately disclosed these vitally relevant documents to Dr X, after 6 years and in response to a s13 DPA claim on 7.4.2010, the GMC-employees involved had concealed, redacted /and unlawfully ‘tippexed’ the internal screening memoranda relating to the same facts of Dr Vaidya for raising concerns over patient-harm and patient-death[s] that would contradict the ‘conflicted’ GMC-BMA-member Dr Keighley’s decision to escalate the NHS-trust’s counter-complaint against X. 12. 10.5.2004 **On 2nd day of ET hearing in Manchester, having spent £1.3 million in legal costs, BMA agrees to pay a six-figure sum to X and 4 others, to settle their claims for race-discrimination against the BMA out of Tribunal. 9.12.2004 Dame Janet Smith in 5th Report of ‘the Shipman Inquiry’, finds that GMC’s ‘fundamentally flawed’ regulatory procedures allowed Shipman murders for 20 years. 10. 14.9.2005 After having failed to act on Dr X complaint re. ‘risk to patients’ by Dr Y (FPD/2002/0753) for 2 years between 8.2002 and 30.9.2004 [for which GMC’s Peter Lynn apologizes to Dr X] the NHS Trust blocks any GMC enquiry. However, GMC persecutes Dr X for disclosing patient records [that the Trust has claimed to be un-obtainable] ultimately closing Dr X complaint (FPD/2002/0753). 20.6.2006 In a liability only hearing Nottingham Employment Tribunal (ET) upheld Dr X complaint of procedural unfair dismissal against his NHS-Trust ex-employer, thus destroying the basis of the Trust's original [now vexatious] complaint-referral to the GMC. (The ET fails to hold a remedy hearing for the Trust’s procedural unfairness. The NHS-Trust has failed to rescind and withdraw its referral of Dr X to the GMC. The GMC fails to cancel the case). This is how whistleblower complaints are stopped at the General Medical Council. In this case, the GMC has never reviewed, investigated patient risk. It did though persecute the whistleblower who was eventually sanctioned. Of course, careers of good doctors can be destroyed, their reputation demonised. Keighley will be congratulated by the medical establishment who will tell us all what a great man he was. Yes, he was a great whistleblower hunter. He did his job well for the masters who hired him. One cannot expect much more. Of course, there was just one minor point, how many patients did actually die because Keighley shut down this whistleblower's complaints? We will never know the answer to this question. Of course, its interesting that there are two screeners so far who have died before the two whistleblowers they persecuted. Perhaps whistleblowers really do live forever.....:). Cheers Brian. Lets all meet for a drink one day in the afterlife.