Despite being banned from working or having restrictions placed on them by the General Medical Council (GMC) doctors are ignoring these restrictions and continuing to practice, putting unsuspecting patients at risk.

17 doctors have been found to have breached the restrictions placed on them by the GMC since 2009 alone and the former president of the General Medical Council, Sir Donald Irvine, stated that there was not enough being done to protect patients.

Sir Irvine went on to say that any doctor found to be in breach of the restrictions placed on them by the GMC should be struck off immediately and banned from practising again. He also stated that the fact that this is happening at all just proves that a tougher system needs to be put in place rather than just relying on the honesty of the doctor.

There is currently no system in place which enables the Watchdog to monitor doctors who have had restrictions placed on them and this makes it incredibly easy for dishonest and even dangerous doctors to slip through the net and continue practising.

In one particular case a doctor was convicted of negligence involving the treatment of an infant but still continued to practice.

Dr. Godwin Duru, who qualified as a GP in Nigeria, prescribed a baby with Calpol, the infant later died from meningitis which wasn’t picked up by the doctor and the Dr. Duru was convicted of negligence by the General Medical Council. However, despite his conviction Dr. Duru secured another job with Herts Urgent Care, an out of hours firm, by not telling them about the GMC’s restrictions that had been placed on him.

Dr. Duru was told by the GMC that he could only continue to practisc on the grounds that he was always under the supervision of another doctor to prevent any further errors being made but Dr. Duru ignored the sanctions and started his new post with the out of hours firm in 2009.

Dr. Duru’s past only came to light when several patients made formal complaints about his work and the out of hours firm began investigating the dodgy doctor’s medical history.

When Herts Urgent Care discovered the conviction Dr. Duru was sacked immediately and the GMC suspended him.

Incredibly, the GMC suspended 106 doctors last year alone. Most of these doctors were suspended for up to a year, a further 30 doctors had restricted duties placed on them and 72 doctors were struck off altogether.

These frightening statistics pose the question, are we taking our lives into our own hands when visiting our GP?

For the patients of Dr. Stuart Green the answer to that question could quite possibly have been yes.

Dr. Green, who spent three years in prison for the possession of heroin, secured a five month job at a Reading medical surgery and a nine month post as a locum in Hackney by not coming clean about his conviction.

The doctor with a penchant for smack was told that he could only continue to work if he informed future employers of his drug conviction to allow them to decide whether they felt he posed a risk.

But, just like Dr. Duru, Dr. Green ignored the sanctions and, thankfully, has now been struck off.

Medical negligence lawyer Charlotte Ellis is well aware of the problem with dodgy doctors continuing to practise and feels that some sort of system should be put in place to enable thorough investigations into the practising histories of all medical practitioners.

Charlotte says that the GMC have neither the time nor the resources to carry out thorough checks on every single doctor and more and more patients are being put at risk.

The Government have been forced to subsidise the body which deals with medical negligence claims against the NHS. This highlights just how big and expensive the issue of medical negligence claims has become. Did you know that :-

• The bail out funds needed will be £185million
• Medical negligence claims have tripled in the past 10 years
• Damages exposure, on a worst case scenario, where all current cases were lost at court, would amount to the huge amount of nearly £17 billion
• Yearly compensation payments have risen from £277 million in the year 2000-01 to an amount close to £1 billion in the last year
• Claims made are approaching 9,000 per year.
• There hahs been an increase in the most catastrophic types of injury claims, where medical advances mean that life expectancy is much better for the victims. These types of cases include brain damage to babies, where compensation can be as high as £6 million for lifetime care.

This is not to say that any personal injury claim is necessarily straightforward, but medical negligence claims do tend to be at the more specialised end of the negligence spectrum.

With a medical negligence claim it generally pays to seek a an expert and not a general personal injury practitioner and one good reason for this is that, when it comes to negotiating a settlement, this is usually with insurers representing the defendant. The credibility of the lawyer dealing with the negotiations is an important factor and the insurers will certainly be aware of whether the lawyer representing the claimant is a specialist.

One of the commonalities between medical negligence and other personal injury claims is that most of these claims are dealt with on a no win  no fee basis, but due to the complexities of a medical negligence action, and the standard of care expected of the doctor or team of doctors against whom negligence is claimed being that of the reasonably competent doctor of taht type, whether GP or specialist, the investigative work and reliance on medical evidence is even more acute than with most other personal injury type actions. This means that the solicitors who consider taking a case for medical negligence on will want to undertake a lot of enquiries and due diligence before agreeing no win no fee terms.

Be aware also that medical negligence claims can include claims against dentists and others as well as doctors and that negligence can also occur with ommission as well as commission. In other words, the alleged negligence may be in failing to provide necessary treatment just as much as in providing the wrong form of treatment,

If you have been the victim of malpractice you may be entitled to make an injury claim, but in this area, it is vital to have the right lawyer behind you.