GMC Rules To Strike Wakefield Off Medical Register for news
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Writer: ingestionsinvolvedbatteries
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News Date: 11 May 2010
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Following a two and a half year investigation, the UK's General Medical Council (GMC) has determined that Andrew Wakefield, the 53-year old doctor who published research and made public statements suggesting that the MMR vaccine caused autism, is guilty of serious professional misconduct and ruled that he be struck off the medical register.
The investigation did not focus on the argument of Wakefield's research but the way he conducted it, and concluded he had acted dishonestly and unethically.
Unless Wakefield appeals within 28 days, he will effectively be banned from practising medicine in the UK. He has told the media that he intends to appeal.
The GMC posted a notice of its ruling, titled "Determination on Serious Professional Misconduct (SPM) and sanction" against Dr Andrew Jeremy Wakefield on its website on Monday. The decision was made by the GMC's Fitness to Practise Panel.
The Panel had already ruled in January that Wakefield had acted "dishonestly and irresponsibly" in the way he carried out his research, but according to the GMC's own procedures, the sanctions have to be decided
The Panel cited several counts of professional misconduct relating to the period leading up to the publication of his research in the late 1990s, when Wakefield was working at the Royal Free Hospital in London as a gastroenterologist.
The Panels' chairman, Dr Surendra Kumar, told the BBC that Wakefield had "brought the medical profession into disrepute", that they had found "multiple separate instances of serious professional misconduct".
Altogether, the Panel found Wakefield guilty of 30 separate charges.
These included taking blood samples from children at his son's birthday party and paying them £5 each, and not disclosing the fact that he had been paid to advise legal representatives of parents who thought their children had been harmed by the MMR vaccine and were looking to sue the manufacturers. He was also accused of using funds for purposes other than those for which they were granted.
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Published BY: ingestions involved batteries
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