Its interesting that the GMC crawled its way out of the Shipman Inquiry and still retained some of its reputation. Few really understood that the reason a serial killer existed was because the GMC had not spotted the signs. The medical profession is often blamed for Shipman. Its why the GMC decided to bring along revalidation, an unconstructive process that has never caught poorly performing doctors. The head honchos of the GMC paraded themselves into the inquiry bleating about how it wasn't their fault "gov" but it was everyone elses fault. Its amazing how Finlay Scott et al at the time did a great job of self preservation. Anyway, fact was Shipman had drug conviction and was addicted to Pethidine. See http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-54654/Officials-failed-act-Shipman-drug-conviction-inquiry-told.html . The GMC had failed to act. Had they acted properly, perhaps many patients could have been saved. Then there was the brave Dr Linda Reynolds who desperately tried to raise the alarm. Ref http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/local-news/agony-of-shipman-whistleblower-1180591 . Where was the GMC when she was trying to raise the alarm? I suppose the GMC was fast asleep as they usually are in these serious cases. The GMC can be seen to act oddly in the case of Dr Jane Barton http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/8486936.stm where they fail to strike her off. Numerous excuses were made. The fact is though patients died and the public needed results. She was given voluntary erasure as she had asked for it. This meant she could work anywhere else in the world without a stain on her registration. Well, thats accountability isn't it especially when a flippant ratty Syrian gets struck off for making politically incorrect remarks http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/626740/Racist-Syrian-doctor-Indians-clean-toilets-struck-off-Ragheb-Nouman . So lets balance the issue of ratty remarks versus patients death? I know I would prefer to be treated by a ratty surgeon rather than Dr Jane Barton any day. Lets be clear on this, Dr Sushant Varma and Dr Shreedhar Vaidya were both struck off for frivolous reasons. they were whistleblowers. Dr Jane Barton was not struck off. The comparators are interesting as to the GMC's own ability to be discriminatory when handing out sanctions. Then I guess they created the art of lawful discrimination in R v GMC Ex Parte Pal where it was accepted by the high court that two doctors - one caucasian and one asian with the same case against them could be handled completely differently. We have Collins J to thank for that. He made it lawful for the GMC to be discriminatory. We note though, all these antics of the GMC doesn't help patient safety at all. Its probably why patient safety is failing. Then that is the GMC's fault and no one elses. No one must believe the GMC's crowings on patient safety. The fact is, they have never cared about patient safety. They have only cared about preserving their reputation.