Political Correctness before Patient Safety, say Hope not Hate

A busy day for Hope not Hate as apart from doing their best to cause maximum violence between EDL and UAF supporters they also took the time to attack UKIPs Nigel Farage for suggesting some foreign doctors weren't up to scratch in an article posted by 'Jack Blanchard' on Nick Lowles personal blog.


Hope not Hate seem remarkably keen to put political correctness ahead of the facts. According to a Daily Telegraph article from December last year, Freedom of Information Act requests have shown that over 60% of the doctors struck off by the GMC in the past five years were trained abroad. Their report also showed:

• 3/4 of doctors struck off in the past year were trained abroad
• Doctors trained overseas are five times more likely to be struck off than those trained in the UK
• 669 doctors were struck off or suspended in the past 5 years. Of those, 420 (63%) were trained abroad

The situation appears to be getting worse. In 2009, 41 out of 67 doctors struck off were trained overseas (61%), while by last year 29 out of 39 struck off were trained overseas (75%).

Hope not Hate undoubtedly think that anything which mentions the word 'foreign' in a negative sense is bad, but the consequence of their absurd, unthinking political correctness could well put the lives of British NHS patients at risk.

We would recommend that before putting their mouths in gear, Hope not Hate engage their brain and do some basic research. Thankfully they are not the government, or they would be explaining why their knee-jerk reaction without bothering to check facts could lead to situations such as those listed at the bottom of this article. We've never heard of anybody dying from Political Correctness, but if Hope not Hate had their way, it could soon feature amongst the leading causes of death in the UK.

Dr Vladan Visnjevac, 59
Bosnia and Hercegovina
Obstetrics registrar at St Peter’s Hospital, in Chertsey, Surrey
Struck off in April 2008 after using three times the proper force on forceps to deliver a baby in 2002. The girl died of a fractured skull and brain injuries.

Dr Sabah Al-Zayyat, 55
Pakistan
Consultant paediatrician at St Ann’s Hospital, in Haringey, north London
Granted 'voluntary erasure’ from the medical register on health grounds in February 2011 after failing to diagnose the broken back of Peter Connelly – the 17-month-old, known as Baby P, who died as a result of abuse. It meant she avoided a misconduct hearing.

Dr Navin Shankar, 62
India
GP at Wigmore Lane Health Centre in Luton, Beds
Relinquished his registration with the GMC in February 2011 after failing to diagnose “persistent” cancer symptoms in a young woman over a six-year period. The woman died aged 26 in August 2007.

Dr Benjamin Obukofe, 44
Nigeria
Doctor at Spire Leicester Hospital, a private hospital in Leicestershire
Suspended by the GMC in September this year after being found guilty by a court of sexually assaulting two colleagues at the hospital. Given a suspended prison sentence and put on the sex offenders register for seven years.

Dr Oluwaseyi Farombi, 43
Nigeria
Mental health doctor across the South East
Struck off in January this year after the GMC discovered he was a criminal with a record of deceit that spanned more than a decade. He has been on the run from police for three and a half years after failing to show up at his trial for fraud in 2009.