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

And who leads multi disciplinary teams ?

 

Moved posts

Dr Gerada was on BBC Today programme again this morning (starts at about 2.49): https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000xlt2

I couldn’t face listening so switched it off.

I don’t know if she was giving medical advice or speaking colloquially as the BBC complaints director claimed in defence of the nonsense she was spouting on BBC Breakfast.

 

Saw someone else say she was poor:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1412335017720782855

 

CG was not too bad, compared with recent interviews. It was mainly Qs about vaccines and masks
Her comments on Long Covid were cut short at end of program.

 

Have just learnt that Clare Gerada plus a male were on the Radio 4 Today programme this morning about 8.50 answering questions from listeners, about the Government's recent statements on covid, long covid and whether she will wear a mask. No mention of ME reported. Focus on withdrawal of restrictions.
She was introduced as London GP and former head of......

I haven't heard it so cannot add more. Too tired now to follow up but maybe our insomniacs may be interested.

 

Per Medscape email today:

"The Royal College of General Practitioners announced today that Professor Dame Clare Gerada will be its next president from 20 November. She served as college chair 2010-2013."

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticl...SCPEDIT&uac=264294PY&impID=3542458&faf=1#vp_2

 

So the question is was she voted despite her public anti-patient views? Or because of them? What does that say of a profession that willingly chooses someone like that to represent them? Someone who has been on the wrong of most of the issues during the pandemic. Someone likely subject to so many complaints during her career she has loudly and proudly asserted patients shouldn't even have the right to complain at all. Who is clearly unable to reject a model contradicted by evidence, choosing the model over the evidence.

Wasn't long ago that it was pointed out that UK medicine has a culture of bullying, workplaces so toxic almost half of all medical professionals want to leave the profession. A culture that doesn't even take care of their own, simply abandons those unfortunate enough to become chronically ill. And a leadership that is perfectly willing to sacrifice people for comfort, or at least not object to it.

Looks like UK GPs voted for more of that. Can't really complain about the culture when it's what they keep voting for to represent their interests, someone who will always put patients last, even for mere discomfort.

 

Does anyone know if these appointments usually last several years? This seems like dire news to me with ME/CFS guideline and long covid situation as well.

 

A two year term.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_College_of_General_Practitioners#Organisation

(...)

The RCGP is unique amongst the medical royal colleges in having both a President and a Chairman. The President takes a mainly ceremonial function while the Chairman sets the college's policy direction, and leads the RCGP decision making body – the council.


Garada is a former Chair (2010-2013).

https://www.rcgp.org.uk/about-us/news/2021/august/rcgp-announces-clare-gerada-as-new-president.aspx

RCGP announces Clare Gerada as new President

Publication date: 02 August 2021

Professor Dame Clare Gerada will be the next President of the Royal College of General Practitioners from 20 November.

She will take over the post from Professor Amanda Howe, whose two-year term will come to an end. Professor Gerada ran unopposed, with 84% of voters agreeing to her appointment.

The RCGP President is the constitutional head of the College. Unlike the other Medical Royal Colleges, it is the Chair who sets the strategic direction and policy. The current RCGP Chair of Council is Professor Martin Marshall.

Professor Gerada was College Chair between 2010-2013 and has remained on College Council as a nationally elected member since. She is currently the longest serving Council member, having been continuously on RCGP Council since 1998. Dame Clare will be the first woman for nearly 70 years and the second in the College's history to hold the position of both Chair and President.

She is a member of the BMA's Council, co-Chair of the NHS Assembly and is founder and Medical Director of Practitioner Health, which provides mental health support to GPs. She is a partner in the Hurley Group and a practising GP in South London.

Dame Clare is also Chair of the charity Doctors in Distress and has recently written a book, Beneath the White Coat, Doctors, their Minds and Mental Illness, with all proceeds going to the charity.

Her term in office will run from November 2021 until November 2023...
​

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1422197773970153477

 

Shudder. The mindset. Very revealing.

From what I gather, this is not a very helpful organization in the first place so I am hoping it does not make too much difference.

 

Or Putin and Medvedev?!!

 

Ah so it's a mostly ceremonial position? That's better, I guess. Or less bad. Well, not fully awful, is really the nicest thing to say here.

Ah, of course, the hubris, queen. Sure. No delusions of grandeur here.

 

LOL Thank-you for this comment; cheered me up

 

Don't know whether this letter by Gerada from May 2009 on the Scottish Good Practice Statement on ME-CFS – May 2009 has already been posted:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1423305233950814211

 

I wonder how well this will go down. The usual suspects in ME/CFS tend only to be infamous to people in this community. Whereas I'm constantly seeing another group of people Gerada has upset week on week

 

Yes - i usually do not read her twitter feed, but I looked at it due to the RCGPs appointment and I saw that she has recently has generated controversy in relation to comments re: IUD insertion (apparently not very painful and nothing to worry about) and doing hospital blood tests at the GP. Some health professionals in the comments do not seem impressed by her constant stream of playing-the-victim GP-themed tweets. I am genuinely surprised that she does these public tweets as it comes across as extremely unprofessional and I know that most people would not get away with maintaining such a twitter feed.

I expect many people outside the ME/CFS world are unimpressed with such attitudes, although I'm sure they have their constituency.

edit for wrong word

 

there's been more on adhd this morning. she's a menace

 

Ah yes I forgot the ADHD comments. I thought this was interesting as she may run into trouble on dealing with autistic people this way as there is a push to changing things and talking about neurodiversity. It is just extraordinarily retrograde and wrong. I am concerned that this has a constituency.

 

Gerada has also been a very vocal opponent of the wearing of masks.