Last night, after a long day both working and enjoying myself with friends, I watched the 10 oclock news on the BBC. Generally I treat any health related stories with complete scepticism but on this occasion I was drawn in by the story of a young person whose medical history had been split into two. One part public and the other private and held by a doctor by the name of David Southall. This doctor had today been struck off by the General Medical Council and this boy, who appeared the same age as my son had in front of him records suggesting that he had been abused by his parents. I wanted to write a post to my blog, and despite being tired I did so and as was suggested that post contained sweeping statements on a subject I knew little about but was also perhaps out of context.

I have still not read much about Dr David Southall. I am a working woman who does not have time in her working day to study such evidence on the internet. But I will be doing so over the next few days. However, what I have to say on the subject so far is this. I am pleased that the medical profession is rallying to support Dr Southall, it is something that sadly never happens with us nurses. I accept that the evidence as presented to the General Medical Council may to some extent have been misunderstood, taken out of context and generally not to the letter of their own directives. But we do have here a doctor who to the outsider has been playing god. Not all parents are perfect, not all parents are any way good, but at the same time not all parents abuse their children. If your child dies by hanging, perhaps you do not anticipate being accused of murder, after all there are easier ways of committing that murder. Children in London are going around shooting and stabbing each other and if you were to follow the rules of the case considered by the GMC then you might expect one of the parents of the children who perpetrated those killings this year to be charged any day soon after all they didn’t stop those children accessing guns and knives.

What I saw last night was a ‘that could have been me’ type scenario. Someone who had been in touch with paediatricians found that they had a secret record in which a doctor played god and suggested they had been abused. The person concerned said the accusation was not true, and perhaps there are many other records held where the accusations are true. However secrecy is not the answer. Doctors acting in such a way as to suggest they are god is not the answer. We need doctors to be involved in Safeguarding, but at the same time we need them to work within teams. We do not need them to confront bereaved parents with accusations that they are murderers when they have been called upon to give impartial advice. That is the job of the police and not a doctor who appears to believe that he is in some way special.

The above views are not evidence based. They are based on my own opinion and limited facts. Please do not reproduce this blog post without permission or vilify me. Because I was driven to write as a mother and not a nurse.