The purpose of this piece is not to educate any readers to buy into the professional values of doctors, or to enter into debate about specifics of professional behaviour. Rather it is to consider the behaviour of a group of doctors who have differing opinions on the future of cancer care and to remind us all of our duties of professional behaviour towards each other, and that this matters. To this end we re-read a General Medical Council booklet entitled ‘Good medical practice: Professionalism in Action’ (henceforward shortened to GMP: PIA) and this blog will refer to this document frequently.
The GMP: PIA document has 80 paragraphs which are principles of good professional behaviour, and the majority of these refer to how to treat patients with honesty, courtesy, respect and with good appropriate treatments. We will not discuss these aspects but will instead focus on the professional behaviours that doctors have towards each other, and towards the circumstances in which they work. We will not be making any allusions to the issue of the New Velindre Treatment Centre plans or the professional behaviour of the doctors at Velindre, but we will point the reader to draw some of their own conclusions if they wish to.
We start with Paragraph 25 which states: ‘You must promote and encourage a culture that allows all staff to raise concerns openly and safely’. We have discussed in many previous blogs [see for instance ‘Is the New Velindre Team hopelessly out of touch?’, October 8th 2021; ‘Tuesday 26th – A Day in the Life’, October 27th 2021] our concerns that debate has been stifled.
Paragraph 36 states: ‘You must treat colleagues fairly and with respect’. Within the Co-Locate team, and in the minds of the 163 Clinicians and others who have differing opinions this is an intriguing position…
Paragraph 37 states: ‘You must be aware of how your behaviour may influence others within and outside the team’. Need we really say more…
Paragraph 59 states: ‘You must not unfairly discriminate against patients or colleagues by allowing your personal views to affect your professional relationships or the treatment you provide or arrange. You should challenge colleagues if their behaviour does not comply with this guidance…’. This paragraph justifies our dissent from the New Velindre position, and we are more than content to agree to differ from the Velindre position, but at least we respect their views but we note that they never deign to discuss the issues with us in Co-Locate…
Paragraph 65 states: ‘You must make sure that your conduct justifies your patients’ trust in you and the public’s trust in the profession’. We have publicly acknowledged in a previous blog [‘Thank you Velindre staff!’, October 13th 2021] that we believe the Velindre team to provide exceptional care, and that patients being treated by the present Velindre team should truly respect their skills, dedication, talent and care: However, to maintain trust we would argue that the New Velindre team should respect divergent opinions and not dismiss them as unhelpful, irrelevant or unnecessary…
Paragraph 67 states: ‘You should act with honesty and integrity when designing, organising or carrying out research, and follow national research governance guidelines and our GMC guidance’. Well, the Nuffield team and others have comments to make here we suspect…
This piece is not intended to accuse anybody of a lack of professionalism or that we or anybody else should involve the General Medical Council in this debate. However, it is a call to lower the tone of any disrespect meted out (either intentionally or unintentionally) to the 163 clinicians who have signed the letter opposing New Velindre plans, the Nuffield Trust Report team, the team from Clatterbridge in Liverpool, ourselves in the Co-Locate team, and others who have honest concerns about the present direction of travel.
We all want the same thing surely, which is good cancer care for South East Wales into the future, and from our side, we would welcome an opportunity to discuss our concerns with any Professional member of the New Velindre team. Our continuing and sincerely held Professional views are that the proposed development of a stand-alone Cancer Treatment Centre is the wrong model, on the wrong site, and to be built at the wrong time – is to too much to ask that this is handled professionally?
