Clare Gerada: influence on UK medical practice and ME/CFS management

Also named in the Honours list.

6.10 Professor Stephen Townley Holgate CBE
Over his long and illustrious career, Professor Holgate’s expertise has been recognised by his research focused on experimental medicine and membership of multiple national and international biomedical scientific advisory boards. In addition to his scientific and clinical work, he has made major contributions to the field through key roles in the Medical Research Council and National Institute for Health Research. He is the Chair of the Main Panel A (Medicine, Health and Life Sciences) of the UK Research Excellence Framework 2014, and special advisor to the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) and UKRI Clean Air Champion. Since 2013 he has been Chair of the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) Board where he has worked to secure the commitment of the scientific community to the 3Rs and to promote the UK’s position as a world leader in 3Rs research and development. In 2016, he chaired a RCPH working party that published a landmark report setting out the dangerous impact of air pollution on the UK’s health. He then contributed to the development of new air pollution policies and to the formation of the Southampton Cleaner Air Partnership. He has long been a champion of research in chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) and, since 2013, he has chaired the UK CFS/ME Research Collaborative (CMRC). Other voluntary contributions include trustee of Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, chair of the Kennedy Trust for Rheumatology Research and trustee of Cancer Research UK.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...gh-awards/queens-birthday-honours-high-awards

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1314939878388436993

 

That must have been the pantomime rehearsal. She's now qualified for the real thing.

 

Just an absolute slap to the face for her numerous victims, with a salted glove on an open wound.

As best as I can tell, Gerada has spent much of her career on a crusade to protect medical professionals from those nasty patients who are troubling and difficult and icky, largely because of a personal history of burnout, so for entirely selfish reasons. She has argued publicly on more than one occasion that patients should not even have a right to complain because the act is hostile to physician well-being.

Basically she has championed the notion that physician well-being should always supersede patient safety, which we all know very well how it turns out. She represents everything wrong with medicine. Every. Damn. Thing. The arrogance, the contempt for patients, the elevating of ideology above even the very survival of some of the most vulnerable patients.

So excuse me but: fuck that shit. Those two things could not be further from the truth about what she has done. Gerada has been on the wrong side of social justice and has been instrumental in the fabrication of completely invalid guidelines that entirely favor the pet interests of ideologues far above millions of lives harmed by them.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1314817288659496960


Does Trisha seriously not understand the critical role Gerada has played in hurting the Long Covid cause long before it happened? Or simply not care? How can she reconcile helping the victims and the bully?!

 

just one more reason that the honours list should be totally abandoned a rather outdated and ridiculous attitude to rewarding those who self publicise and have friends put them forward for meaningless titles .

 

There was a documentary on BBC Scotland a few weeks ago, though it may still be on iplayer, called "Eminent Monsters". It was about Ewen McGregor who was the most eminent psychiatrist in Canada and head of the world associaiton of psychologists who was funded by the CIAs MKUltra program and worked out the torture methods used in Guantanamo today by experimenting on his patients.

We know there were others just as renowned in their time who have been exposed since then. Eminence and awards are no guarantees of scientific or moral excellence.

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1316016659690254336


Not hard to see where the idea that "bastards just don't want to get better" comes from. With horrible leadership like that, no system of care can actually serve its intended purpose.

What's more worrying is seeing how she seems rather appreciated of her peers, for having promoted a mindset that puts physician well-being above patient safety. Basically: "do harm, you'll feel better for it".

For the record, "accountability among patients" is not a thing. Professional accountability is for professionals, hence why they have 100% of the power in the relationship. This is the kind of worldview that blames prisoners who get beat by guards for pissing them off, very dehumanizing.

 

Yet if you pitch up at most GP's clutching your research and having opinions, especially ones they don't like, then I think most patients will be told to stick they're accountability where the sun don't shone.

Edit - In a way I do get the idea of accountability. People should, given the means available to them, try to be as healthy as they can.

One example is a relative of mine with a long term health condition, exacerbated by the treatment a well.meaning GP kept giving her. It was making her worse & disabling her more but she still went along rather than say "No" to the GP. How could he know it didn't work if she didn't tell him. Whether or not he would have listened....

Also....not everyone has the means to make the choices they would like. If you're on a very low income you buy the food you can afford. You can buy processed meals for a lot less than the ingredients to make those meals especially with supermarket BOGOFs and if you're too time poor for a lot of prep (multiple jobs on zero hour contracts). So, being accountable and taking responsibility for one's own health is nowhere near as straightforward as one might think. Which you would think the wife of a very eminent BPSer would know.

 

The GP's function is to administer and put into effect the NICE guidelines. If this causes difficulties with patients, what measures has Gerada taken to address the issues? She should direct her comments in both directions.

 

Dames also make me think of pantomimes, not in a good way...

 

Thought this news from two years ago could be added here? (*)

University College London Hospitals (UCLH) appoints new non-executive directors (Dr Junaid Bajwa, Dr Jane Collins and Dr Clare Gerada) :

https://www.uclh.nhs.uk/News/Pages/UCLHappointsnewnonexecutivedirectors.aspx

Forum threads on CG's and her husband's roles in the NHS and related issues:

https://www.s4me.info/threads/gerada-and-ham-hired-to-support-and-challenge-nhs-england.8373/

https://www.s4me.info/threads/clare...ce-manslaughter-review-gmc-expert-panel.4267/

https://www.s4me.info/threads/clare...r-health-suggests-gp-mental-health-lead.1489/

https://www.s4me.info/threads/who-is-simon-wessely.9364/

(*) Just tidying up my drafts folder (container of all kinds of stuff I'm not sure about their relevance or haven't been able yet to word properly for posting).

 

Why is Clare Gerada "running" groups for doctors with Long Covid and from what interest? As a long hauler herself? Or as someone who gumptioned through it like a fearless chicken soup eater and thus avoided Long Covid by being strong and self-efficacious? To advise on the BPS rehabilitation model? To encourage them to explore their psychological failures?

I'm not sure why she is disappointed that the monster she has created is eating her colleagues, this is exactly what she has advised her entire career, these doctors clearly have unhelpful beliefs about having fallen ill from a virus, right? IIRC Delaney is also a big fan of the BPS thing that's somehow not working as well from the other side of the consultation desk. Power asymmetries really are weird like that.

The bastards just don't want to get better, perhaps? These jerks created a remorseless, cruel monster but I guess they never intended the face-eating monster to eat their face or that of their peers, which suggests their own faces may also be eaten and that just makes it real and personal unless "those patients" who are just whiny losers.

To put another famous meme to use: well, well, well, isn't it the consequences of my own actions?

https://twitter.com/user/status/1325909123976884225

 

Wasn't sure where to put this information, but today I discovered that Clare Gerada is one of the two co-chairs of the NHS Assembly.

https://www.longtermplan.nhs.uk/nhs-assembly/chairs/

Members of the Assembly are expected to follow the '7 principles of public office' (I presume this applies to the co-chairs as well as the normal members...)

https://www.longtermplan.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-assembly-terms-of-reference/

 

1 out of 7 can't be bad.

 

"The seven principles of public life:

Selflessness
Holders of public office should take decisions solely in terms of the public interest. They should not do so in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends.
Integrity
Holders of public office should not place themselves under any financial or other obligation to outside individuals or organisations that might influence them in the performance of their official duties.
Objectivity
In carrying out public business, including making public appointments, awarding contracts, or recommending individuals for awards and benefits, holders of public office should make choices on merit.
Accountability
Holders of public office are accountable for their decisions and actions to the public and must submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is appropriate to their office.
Openness
Holders of public office should be as open as possible about all the decisions and actions that they take. They should give reasons for their decisions and restrict information only when the wider public interests clearly demands.
Honesty
Holders of public office have a duty to declare any private interests relating to their public duties and to take steps to resolve any conflicts arising in a way that protects the public interests.
Leadership
Holders of public office should promote and support these principles by leadership and example."

 

Errrm ... which one is that please?

 

Leadership - automatic coz she is in charge of it.