I believe the GCC does have an important and necessary role to play in the regulation and development of chiropractic, which is why I am standing for election. But, like all organisations I have ever examined, it must change with the environment and this is where I feel the weakness lies.
Recent research tells us that as a profession we have little confidence in the GCC. It is my belief that the cause of this ‘lack of confidence’ is a direct result of the Chiropractors on the GCC fighting amongst themselves and navel gazing rather than making an effort to work together for the good of the profession.
Some of the things I would like to see tackled as a matter of priority outlined below:
Greater Transparency in Decision Making
We all have knowledge of past actions, such as that against the Chiropractic-uk website which seemed to transpire through nebulous methods of decision making. I challenged the GCC on the process and rationale for this action without huge success. This highlighted for me just how little we know about how decisions are made on our behalf. It is my belief that the majority of decisions made by council should be openly accessible by any chiropractor that asks. The Due Process for decision making should be clear, open and transparent so that if necessary we can, as chiropractors, challenge decisions on a level playing field.
If elected I would work to help make this a reality.
A Review of the Efficacy of Processes Currently in Place with Particular Emphasis on Professional Conduct Cases
There is far too much to talk about here, but we all know improvements can with the right will, be made to reduce the cost, inadequacies and apparent unfairness of the overall complaints procedure.
In the CHRE 2005 GCC performance report it states that ‘one area for development should be to consider whether to commission an audit of its Investigating Committee’s decisions, once the audit of its Professional Conduct Committee’s decisions has been completed’. I may be out of date but as a working chiropractor I have not seen much happening here. I think the audits should go further and examine the whole of the key processes and not just the outcomes of the PCC decisions.
In 2005 the GOsC undertook a review of their complaints process and produced a more cost effective approach. Yet when I asked a current member of the GCC about benchmarking to see if the GCC could improve he simply said ‘we are doing a better job based on fact the GCC had more complaints’…needless to say I don’t agree.
Let’s look at some figures comparing GOsC and the GCC (unfortunately we don’t have the GCC 2006 figures yet)
As with any organisation in a changing environment, we must stop and check whether it is still fit for purpose and examine the key processes that underpin its method of working. I believe the skills I developed outside of the chiropractic profession can be put to good use here.
Increased emphasis on promoting the Profession
This is one of my main platforms. Ask yourself just how far we have come in the last 5 years in terms of visibility, awareness, understanding and acceptance within the main stream health care professionals or indeed, within the vast majority of the public.
Whilst some may argue it is a lost cause because of the Foster Report (and The Regulation of Healthcare Professionals in the 21st century), the reality is that when I spoke to the Department of Health last month, no decisions on implementing changes to ‘promotion’ have yet been made by the Government on this issue.
What was most telling is that the GCC did not put up a fight to keep promotion of chiropractic as part of their remit.
And even if Government plans do change things, we still have time to make a difference.
The response from a chiropractic member of the GCC to a question on promotion of the profession at a meeting last year (minuted) stated:
‘promotion tends to be viewed as promoting individual chiropractor’s business, but the government saw it as promoting the interests of the whole profession’
Now I don’t know about you, but I never thought for one minute any chiropractor believed ‘promoting the profession’ to be about promoting individual business – but that is what this member of the GCC seems to think the mass of chiropractors believe!
It is my view that most of the GCC representatives have little, if any, experience of strategic marketing and communications, which is why they would like to remove it from the GCC remit and why they make comments as above.
However, if the current regime and the Government plan to drop promotion, I have some questions:
Why can’t some of our fees be ring-fenced and the promotion managed by an independent third party – like the College of Chiropractors? We could even have a Chiropractic Profession Magazine - like the Osteopaths - that represented all views.
The Associations could each contribute and have some space of their own.
If elected this is one area I can promise to bring real weight to the GCC for the time we have left. I spent many years working with major organisations in strategic and operational marketing, and it doesn’t take much to see that the GCC is downplaying this aspect of its role.
Or if we drop a quarter of the GCC remit, do we see a reduction in fees?
Comparing the General Osteopathic Council and GCC brings up an interesting anomaly considering how similar we are to each other.
The GOsC registration fees as a new graduate are £375, payable in a lump sum or by ten monthly instalments. The fee for the second year will be £500 and for the years thereafter £750.
Limits on Actions to Reduce the Diversity in Chiropractic
There is, and have always been, arguments about the ‘best technique’ or the ‘best way to educate’, or the ‘best way to treat’. In part it is the fatuous internal politics and arrogant attitudes amongst a small number of people that have led to the divisions in our profession and confusion amongst patients about exactly what is Chiropractic?
I have heard chiropractors of all types denigrating other techniques and seen websites and articles doing the same. Why?
There is enough work for everyone and, in my experience, patients make their own choices about whether they like and/or benefit from a particular technique, which is often more to do with the Chiropractor than the technique.
As long as we are safe, competent and ethical we should be encouraging the diversity and increasing the numbers of people benefiting from chiropractic, not simply wanting one particular form of Chiropractic to dominate. The best chiropractors will always take from many techniques to the benefit of their patients.
However, on a personal note, I would like to believe that all chiropractors would distance themselves from colleagues that mislead patients in any way for personal gain.
Increased Support and Encouragement for Additional Colleges of Chiropractic
In the 2005 GCC Performance report it states that a Key issue/challenge is the
‘need to increase the number of education providers, with a better geographical spread’
And followed it with ’As a matter of policy, the Education Committee takes a supportive,
developmental approach in its dealings with education providers’
We have seen the nature of this ‘closeness’ with the McTimoney College recently and whether you like or dislike the course, the mode of learning or the technique I think any outsider would agree that the final approach taken did not seem to be supportive and developmental.
If we are to increase the access to Chiropractic we must increase both the number of students and the number of educational establishments that offer Chiropractic.
This is a subject close to my heart as live ‘up North’ and we have nothing up here. If elected I would like to work with like-minded group to facilitate the opening of a northern college of Chiropractic.
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