Thursday 28 November 2013

Dr Gordon Skinner




  http://www.thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/news_and_media/Dr_Skinner.html
Dr Gordon Skinner has died from a stroke, Doctors4Justice has been informed just now. He fought to increase the standards of treatment for patients in UK who have clinical symptoms of hypothyroidism but according to British Standard range for thyroid blood levels were considered normal in them. Please, click on his photograph above to read more about Dr Skinner's work. It is known that different countries have different standards, and of course, different standards of well being.
For about 11 years he had various General Medical Council disciplinary hearings because GMC could not cope with his reasoning. Disciplinary hearings are felt as a huge public humiliation. Such stress is known to be associated with the higher risk of dying from myocardial infarction, and strokes.Read HERE about Humiliation its nature and its consequences.


Results of search on: 28 Nov 2013 at 20:04:30. The details shown are valid at the date and time of the search only. (well , they are not, Dr Skinner has died)
GMC Reference Number 0726922
Given Names Gordon Robert Bruce
Surname Skinner
Gender Man
Primary Medical Qualification MB ChB 1965 University of Glasgow
Status Registered with a licence to practise; this doctor is on the Specialist Register
This doctor has conditions
Conditions on the doctor's registration
From To Condition
23 Nov 2013 23 Jul 2014
1. He must notify the GMC promptly of any professional
appointment he accepts for which registration with the GMC is
required and provide the contact details of his employer.
Details
2. He must allow the GMC to exchange information with any
employer he may have or any contracting body for which he
provides medical services.
3. He must inform the GMC of any formal disciplinary proceedings
taken against him, from the date of this determination.
4. He must inform the GMC if he applies for medical employment
outside the UK.
5. a. His clinical work in relation to prescribing of thyroid
replacement therapy must be supervised by a named Consultant
Endocrinologist. This means that his day to day work must be
supervised by this consultant who may be off site but must be
available to be called if necessary. However, as a minimum, his
work must be reviewed at least once a fortnight by the
supervising consultant. This review should include regular case
based discussions, with reference to his logbook. This logbook
may additionally be provided in an electronic format agreed with
his supervisor. b. He must seek a report from his supervisor for
consideration by this Panel, prior to any review hearing of this
Panel.
6. In any patient with normal thyroid function test results and
with a history of cardiac disease, he should not initiate treatment
with Thyroxine without first having an opinion from the patient’s
cardiologist or GP, which should be recorded in his logbook.
7. He must keep a contemporaneous logbook of all patients for
whom he prescribes or recommends thyroid replacement
therapy. This book must identify the patient only by their initials
and NHS number together with the name and contact number of
the referring practitioner, and should be initialled and dated by
the patient. a. The logbook he keeps must indicate: i. The reason
for the prescription of thyroid replacement treatment; ii. The
most recent thyroid blood test results, dated, regardless of
whether or not the blood test was carried out by a general
practitioner or himself; and iii. The dose he has prescribed or
recommended of thyroid replacement treatment. b. This logbook
must be available for consideration by this Panel, prior to any
review hearing of this Panel. In addition, any electronic version of
the logbook should be available to the Panel.
8. He must inform the following parties that his registration is
subject to the conditions, listed at (1) to (7), above: a. Any
organisation or person employing or contracting with him to
undertake medical work b. Any locum agency he is registered
with or applies to be registered with (at the time of application) c.
Any prospective employer or contracting body (at the time of
application).

He would have found the above conditions unbearable and hugely damaging to him.

He will be missed much by his family and his patients who depended on him for their treatment. We were thought at medical school that we treat the patient not the blood test.

4 comments:

Dr Adrian Garfoot said...

This is sad and tragic. I have been following Dr Skinner's case for some years and have met one of his successful cases. He was an inspired physician and will ultimately be proved right.

I have also experienced the malevolence of the medical hierarchy and in particular the GMC. Their whole aim is to humiliate and destroy doctors and much of this is done through the media who are given a free run of the GMC.

My thoughts are with his family.

Dee said...

Let this PREMATURE death of Dr Skinner bring forth positive reform of the GMC & also the diagnosis/treatments of the Thyroid AND Adrenal Glands.

The world has been more than fortunate to have had a human being such as Dr Skinner, his knowledge and qualities of character and personality made him an outstanding member of the human race. Deirdre Ryan.

Anonymous said...

Following a viral infection and subsequent and constant exhaustion and muscular-skeletal pain, I eventually lost a decade of my life to what was diagnosed after two years as 'fibromyalgia'. My grandmother was bedridden in her 50s with what was then diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and my mother (who died at 48) had fibrositis. I heard about Dr Skinner about 3 years ago but remained sceptical that he could help me.. However, with little to lose, I decided to make an appointment with him last year. What an amazing, inspiring, amusing person he was. He gave me a page of symptoms to tick if they applied. Many were not significant enough to warrant a trip to the doctor but it was as if someone had written my life on a page. I ended up ticking over 90% of them. Fast forward to 12th November, just wo weeks before Dr Skinner died. I had been on thyroxine for 4 months only but had got my life back after 10 years. He who says the thyroxine is a placebo and the beneficial effect is psychological is seriously deluded. Before I took it, I could not survive beyond mid morning if I forgot to take my NSAI : the pain told me I had forgotten. Now I can forget without even noticing and hope I will be able to dispense with taking them altogether fairly soon. Despite the obvious improvement in my condition, my GP remains unconvinced and will not prescribe thyroxine. I cannot believe I will not see Dr Skinner again. Who will replace him? In ten years, or hopefully less, I suspect that general practitioners will look back at his findings and praise his insight. In the meantime, his death leaves an enormous void. I - and all his other patients - are also going to have major problems in finding someone to prescribe our medication. God bless you, Dr Skinner. You gave light and hope to thousands of people.

L M Cooper said...

Having suffered from an underactive Thyroid for about 15 years and cannot remember a single day since then when I could say that I felt well I am sadden that we have lost a Doctor who was willing to LISTEN to what his patients were saying to him. Three other members of my family also suffer from this condition & I have met many other sufferers at work etc and each and everyone of them are suffering the same fate. As far as the GMC and most of the medical profession are concerned we are "the forgotten people". Left to live a life in pain. Prescribed drugs for other conditions that we would not need if our thyroid conditon was acknowleged to be the cause of our issues. Shame on you GMC hounding a man who was open minded enough to think that maybe there was a better way than levothyroxine. But that wouldn't suit the drugs companies would it. We are merely collateral damage.