• * * We have written in a leading article
about the General Medical Council and its powers. Here we desire to add a few words on the same subject. We think that if the reform which we have suggested elsewhere is regarded for some reason as unacceptable, there ought to be, as an alternative, some right of appeal against the decisions of the Council. Though the Council has not exactly " the power of life and death," it has the next best thing—power to ruin a man irretrievably. Consider the case of a doctor of, say, fifty years of age, who has spent most of his life in learning and practising his profeision. If he is struck off the Register, his means of living is entirely taken away from him. He is lucky if he has not a family which is also ruined. The punish- ment is a terribly heavy one in any case, but we must confess that we arc appalled when we think of such punishment being administered in a doubtful case. Of course a doctor who has been struck off the Register can apply to have his name restored, but , he is then only returning to the court which condemned him. S. barrister or a solicitor can appeal to a Judge of the High Court. *. *
Previous page
