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You have to laugh. Questions are being asked by real sceptics about the medical regulator ten years after Shipman. Is the GMC fit for purpose? 75 allegation have been made against surgeon David Jackson from 16 different patients going back to 2006 and the GMC has not held a hearing yet. Mr Jackson has now retired and is organising wedding receptions instead of cancer operations. No doubt his reputation is being protected by an old boys club, who always say the right thing and wear suits and ties to meetings. Compare this to the reaction of the GCC to over 700 chiropractors, for using words like "treat" instead of “may help” on their websites. There was not a shred of evidence that patients were harmed by theses chiropractors “claims”, yet the chiropractic regulator the GCC, under pressure from “Skeptics” (spelt with a K; scepticism reserved for those who dare think outside the findings of a chemistry set), spent millions of pounds chasing these vexatious complaints. For no other reason than to demonstrate to the CHRE and department of health that  all was well in health regulation. Like the guys having their heads chopped off, unbelievably  chiropractors paid the axe man [...]

Chiropractic Live - Resisting the Medicalisation of and Promoting Chiropractic Care

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I have got involved with a very interesting discussion on Linkedin  on the relevance of the subluxation to chiropractic. The discussion moved on to “chiropractors needs cultural authority” like the osteopaths in the US and this point of view was supported by an interview given by Richard Brown in the Austrialia  After the Storm – What have we learned The suggestion seems to be that it was subluxation chiropractors who brought the Skeptic attach on chiropractic, rather than evidence based BCA chiropractors who were silly enough not to question their leaders. I have not read any chiropractic literature recently so its amazing to me so little has been learned. I told this American chiropractor John I did not diagnose or treat conditions and he felt I was just a technicians. I though you might find the context interesting even though I have written this stuff many times here, so apologies for repeating myself.  What I have learned is there are two groups of chiropractors with conflicting ideas as to the future of chiropractic and they will never  agree or be able to work together. The sooner the leaders of chiropractic accept this, the better for chiropractic and stop all this [...]

Chiropractic Live - Resisting the Medicalisation of and Promoting Chiropractic Care

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It’s been a very busy few months since I was last able to post regularly. So I am trying to make up for my selfishness with my second post within a few days. One of the reasons I have been a bit rubbish is because of what Richard is going through. It just reminds you of what it is all about and it has meant that I was spending some of my blogging-time smoking cigars. It was also the fact that the clinic is getting busy and the occasional gap I used to have is no longer. Also there was the fact that I was bricking it. Despite my apparent bravado I was starting to doubt whether I should have opened my gob at all. Who knows, they might have been right about me resigning being a stupid thing to do, and I cannot in all honesty say that I would certainly have been blogging about it if it had turned out they had been right. Not perse because of any of the obvious things (My staff did observe a few “strange” new patient bookings, I did receive a spurious complaint to Companies’ House from a local chiropractor and an obscene complaint [...]

Chiropractic Live - Resisting the Medicalisation of and Promoting Chiropractic Care

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The incredibly odd tale of holism. It’s quite the strange thing when day after day patients come into your office telling you: “you have such a holistic view on healthcare”. Very odd indeed. Particularly when you don’t think you do. But then you realise that “being holistic” is a contradictio in terminis. A little like: “being perfect”. Both are in my view equally unattainable. The sheer fact of being immediately infers imperfection on the being. Holism, true holism that is, implies complete knowledge and understanding of all aspects of a person’s existence and being. Absolute knowledge is impossible and a delusion only few sane clinicians will entertain (and swiftly reject). Contradictio in terminis indeed. That’s when you conclude that the patient must have meant you are “more holistic than some of the people they had met”. Not much of an accolade but at least it’s accurate. The other problem is that to some people it seems the term holism has some sort of anti-reductionist policy at its midst. That’s a problem to me because I am the polar opposite: a reductionist in absurdio, meaning that I believe that when you know everything about a system and its surrounding/influencing events, you will [...]

Chiropractic Live - Resisting the Medicalisation of and Promoting Chiropractic Care

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  6 Medical Myths Even Your Doctor May Still Believe. By Dr Robert Kornfeld Huffington Post November 2011 "The more things change, the more they stay the same." This couldn’t be truer of our health care delivery system. As a practicing physician for more than 30 years, I have experienced firsthand the explosion of medical technology, much of which has dramatically changed the way we diagnose pathology and the way we surgically and medically treat pathology. I will admit that this has served patients and doctors well, yet recent history has seen an explosion of illness and morbidity in our society. What I feel compelled to take issue with, and the reason I am writing this treatise, is that the actual paradigm of medical care has not changed much in spite of all of our technological advances. Physicians have been extensively trained and have held steadfast in the belief that presenting symptoms are entities unto themselves. These symptom complexes have been treated as if they have a life of their own, separate and apart from the innocent bystander host, the person with the medical problem. We have divided the human body into a jigsaw puzzle of component parts. We’ve taken [...]

Chiropractic Live - Resisting the Medicalisation of and Promoting Chiropractic Care

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I would not want anybody to miss CAM expo this weekend at Earls Court exhibition Centre. The promo for the event states “make sure you are there for the  UK’s only dedicated event to the complementary, natural and integrated healthcare sector.  With more exhibitors, more education and more associations than ever before it’s not surprising the whole industry is talking about it!” “This year’s event will have over 200 exhibitors showcasing products, services and training from throughout the CAM marketplace, support from all of the major associations and over 100 seminars,workshops and demonstrations taking place in ten dedicated areas”. One of the speakers is none other than my old friend Margaret Coats. She is going to speak about boiling frogs. She will emphasis how you dont make the water too hot to start with or they jump out, you put the frogs in the water and gradually turn up the heat.  “Margaret is looking forward to meeting the many individuals who work so tirelessly on behalf of complementary healthcare”  http://www.camexpo.co.uk/seminars-2/seminars/seminar-speakers/#7

Chiropractic Live - Resisting the Medicalisation of and Promoting Chiropractic Care

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Obviously she got a glowing reference from Peter  Dixon et al as they thought she had done a great job bringing the chiropractic profession to its knees now she is to turn her attention to Alexander technique, Aromatherapy, Bowen, Hypnotherapy,Massage,Naturopathy, reflexology, etc etc and do the same to them. Like Coats, Greg Price was forced out nevertheless was able  to get the exact same job for the regulator for psychotherapists until members found out what he had been up to and they forced him out. Lets hope the same happens to Coats, but I doubt it its called cronyism. Media Release for the Complementary and Natural Health Care Council 8 August 2011 CNHC Appoints new CEO / Registrar CNHC Board is delighted to announce the appointment of Margaret Coats as Interim CEO/Registrar from 1 September 2011. Margaret was CEO and Registrar at the General Chiropractic Council until April 2011 and has recently been working with CNHC in an advisory capacity. She has an impressive career pathway, including roles as CEO of the Occupational Standards Council for Health & Social Care and Head of the NHS Open Learning Unit. Margaret will be working 3 days a week initially, whilst undertaking a [...]

Chiropractic Live - Resisting the Medicalisation of and Promoting Chiropractic Care

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A few months ago I got a call asking me to blog about a scandal that was unfolding at WIOC. A slush fund had been set up at Glamorgan as a perk to supplement the income of tutors. Presumably its tax free and its an incentive to work there by funding tutors BCA membership, GCC registrations fees, trips to conferences etc, whats naughty about this is they funded the slush fund with student cash, the students I talked to were were under the impression the money they were giving was for library books, not tutors perks. WIOC has always been clear about its political affiliations, David Byfield is head of WIOC and a member of the GCC education committee and his testimony in the Jensen case of 2002  convinced skeptics that Margaret Coats would act on complaints against BCA chiropractors. Byfield had made the same criticism of BCA colleagues in 2002 and stated he would not use BCA promotional materials as they were missleading. However screwing £175 out of each student seems a bit low even for him. You would have thought tutors could have seen a few patients to earn that pin money, instead of expecting students to increase [...]

Chiropractic Live - Resisting the Medicalisation of and Promoting Chiropractic Care

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Those of you following the recent FIFA revelations may have noticed the similarities with other regulatory bodies. Peter Dixon did not do very well in the 2007 elections in England. Yet was re- appointed Chairman of the council without anyone voting for him on the  new council. When the government decided to reform the GCC, Peter was part of the appointment process of the council and the committees. When complaints are made about the GCC Peter investigates them unless the complaint is about him in which case one of the mates he chose for the council does the investigating.  Peter is more than happy to mislead chiropractors to stay as chair of the GCC, because he cant risk showing his face at a chiropractic conference or can’t expect to be elected to anything again . Getting rid of Coats will not make a blind bit of difference to ordinary chiropractors. The medical agenda will continue. Remember in pushing this “evidenced based” musculoskeletal agenda, the evidence for back pain is not for “chiropractic” its for “spinal manipulation”, not these touch feely techniques many chiropractors favour. It wont be so long in the future, when the GCC education committee is telling the [...]

Chiropractic Live - Resisting the Medicalisation of and Promoting Chiropractic Care

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At about two in the afternoon, on November 21, 1920, the players of Tipperary lined up for a team photograph before the match against Dublin. At the rear three good friends from the village of Grangemokler stand side by side, In the centre my grandfather Richard (Dick) Lanigan, to his left Gerry Shelly and  to his right Mick Hogan. In minutes Hogan would be dead, shot by British paramilitaries, along with 13 other people, the youngest a fourteen year old boy. Before the match only two of the players were members of the IRA, after the game the all joined. Within 2 years Ireland was independent and this team had won the all – Ireland football championship. Some  say they became champions because you did not mess with these guys they were warriors and they had courage, rather than skill. My grandfather would not have wanted an apology from the Queen yesterday at Croke Park, it would have been better if politicians showed they  learned from their “mistakes” as the queen put it. No doubt 100 years from now another British Monarch will be visiting sites in Iraq, Afganistan and Libya where thousands of innocents civilians  have also died as [...]

Chiropractic Live - Resisting the Medicalisation of and Promoting Chiropractic Care