Dr Jenny Vaughan has been a Consultant Neurologist for 14 years. Jenny was the medical lead for the successful over-turning of the conviction of Surgeon Mr David Sellu for gross negligence manslaughter in 2013. This rare achievement was recognised by a national Modern Law Award for the Sellu medico-legal team in January 2018.

She has supported Hadiza Bawa-Garba for a number of years ( with others) and has worked with Team Hadiza towards winning the recent appeal against her erasure instigated by the GMC. She does not believe that the adversarial nature of the criminal court is the right place to determine who is responsible for complex healthcare-related deaths. Recent prosecutions have been exclusively of BME doctors and she believes this should be of great concern to all.

Jenny has authored many commissioned articles on gross negligence manslaughter (GNM) and is a regular speaker on this subject both nationally and internationally. She has also worked with thousands in healthcare who have supported the campaign to restore to Dr Bawa-Garba to the medical register. She has contributed to the recent reviews into GNM by the government and the GMC. She also worked, with others, to ensure that recent sentencing guidelines for GNM recognised the challenges for those in frontline healthcare. She co-founded the first UK online resource for anyone to access who wishes to know more about the charges of gross negligence manslaughter in healthcare.

As an individual she wishes to work with DAUK in order to facilitate a shared understanding of the problems created by recent prosecutions in healthcare and help promote their campaign of “Learn not Blame.” She cares passionately about the NHS and has previously campaigned to highlight the safety issues created by large hospital reconfigurations. She served as a local councillor for 8 years in a busy London borough and had a specialist health portfolio. She has personal experience of what it’s like to be a patient using the NHS and therefore understands how vital patient safety is for both patients and doctors.

You can follow Jenny on Twitter at @DrJennyVaughan.

Robert is an ACCS Emergency Medicine trainee (newly) based in Bristol. He was a representative for the BMA and served on the local organising committee during the Junior Doctor contract dispute.

Rob organised local industrial action and conducted local and national media interviews during the industrial action (occasionally post-nights!) He is a dedicated advocate for the NHS and for safer, fairer working practices.

Rob has spent five years working in frontline specialities and has seen the strain placed onto an under-staffed, cash-strapped, morale-sapped healthcare system. This has motivated him to become more involved in grass-roots activism.

On joining DAUK Rob said, ‘For too long, we have let others set the agenda. We need an active body that campaigns on behalf of patients, doctors, and the NHS.’

DAUK were overwhelmed with the standard of applications we received and we would like to thank every doctor who applied.

These concerns relate to cases being brought to the Court of Appeal by the GMC in an attempt to overrule the findings of doctors’ tribunal proceedings, in order to have doctors erased from the medical register. DAUK and its affiliates are calling for the Health Secretary to undertake an urgent review of the current and ongoing actions of the GMC, and to put a stop to such appeals being brought, pending a review of relevant legislation.

This call for action has come following the landmark case involving Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba. The GMC had sought to overturn a decision made by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS), in order to erase Dr Bawa-Garba from the medical register. To the relief of the medical profession, the Court of Appeal unanimously rejected the GMC’s case, and ruled that Dr Bawa-Garba ought to be reinstated to the medical register, thus allowing her to continue to work as a doctor.

The Bawa-Garba case resulted in the launch of the Williams Review, with recommendations being made in June of 2018. Professor Norman Williams stated that the GMC ought to have its right to appeal MPTS verdicts removed, and noted that granting the GMC this right of appeal in 2015 had come with significant unwelcome and unintended consequences. DAUK concludes that the GMC cannot be trusted to take a balanced and considered approach in placing sanctions upon doctors in circumstances such as those faced by Dr Bawa- Garba – doctors making honest mistakes in the context of system failure.

The Doctors’ Association UK are alarmed to learn that, despite the outcome of the Bawa-Garba case, along with the recommendations of the Williams Review, the GMC has continued to appeal MPTS verdicts in the courts. Within the last weeks, the GMC has been urged to show “restraint”, and judges have expressed “regret” at such cases having been brought to the Court of Appeal. DAUK understands that there are a further four appeals due to be heard, all of which involve the GMC appealing to overturn tribunal verdicts.

The Doctors’ Association UK believes that the continuation of such unchecked action by the GMC will lead to a further breakdown in trust between the medical profession and its regulator, with a progressive move towards a culture of fear and blame, rather than one of learning. DAUK urges the Health Secretary to request that the GMC halts its appeals against MPTS verdicts forthwith. Furthermore, DAUK asks the Health Secretary to confirm that the recommendations of the Williams review will be upheld, and that the relevant changes to legislation are made without delay.

read the full letter here