Penny Mellor - the controversial parents’ rights activist - has resigned from the GMC’s child protection working group.
In a letter to the GMC, Mellor explained she had decided to resign because she felt that the response to her membership was detracting from the important work of the group.
There was outrage, particularly among paediatricians, back in July, when the GMC appointed Mellor to their new child protection working group.
The group, chaired by Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Thorpe, deputy chair of the Family Justice Council and Lord Justice of Appeal, is producing new guidance for doctors involved in child protection.
The group has 14 members including seven doctors from a number of specialities and seven lay members - of which Mellor was one.
At the time, campaign group Professionals Against Child Abuse wrote to the BMJ pointing out that Mellor had made false allegations against health professionals about their involvement in child protection cases, even accusing some of sexual abuse and paedophilia.
Mellor also reported professionals to their employers, regulatory bodies, and politicians, and harassed them through the media, in some cases wrecking their professional lives. She played a significant role in the media campaign against the paediatricians who were central to the recognition and diagnosis of fabricated and induced illness (FII, previously known as Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy). It contributed to the GMC’s decisions to order the names of Professor Sir Roy Meadow and Professor David Southall OBE to be erased from the medical register in 2004 and 2007 respectively.
After much damage to child protection work, these decisions were found to be erroneous: Sir Roy was reinstated to the medical register by the High Court and Southall by the Court of Appeal.
Her resignation followed the launch of a legal challenge to the decision to appoint her.
Commenting on Mellor’s decision to stand down from the group, Niall Dickson, chief executive of the GMC, said: “We established this group to develop guidance that will help doctors involved in this complex and challenging area of practice to interpret and apply the standards expected by the GMC.
“We are determined to ensure that parents, children, doctors, and other professionals are able to take part and help shape this important guidance.”
Read a blog on the issue.
Tags: Child protection
[...] Instead, Mr Dickson gives this waffling non-answer. “Commenting on Mellor’s decision to stand down from the group, Niall Dickson, chief executive of the GMC, said: “We established this group to develop guidance that will help doctors involved in this complex and challenging area of practice to interpret and apply the standards expected by the GMC. [...]