The Fat Doctor

For starters these tweets are taken out of context. The first one refers to my rescue dog Mia, who came to us after three unsuccessful attempts at finding her a home. The first thing I was told about Mia was that she was afraid of men and barks whenever she encounters them. After living with us for a year, Mia is now comfortable around men that remind her of my husband (a Black man) but continues to be wary of men that do not look like him.

The tweet referenced my months-long struggle to be able to walk Mia in public without her being so reactive. It appears you deemed the “and so do I” comment as inappropriate and/or offensive, even though I am a Minority Ethnic person (Jewish/Asian) who has every right to express his fear of the people who have historically oppressed his ancestors for centuries.

The second tweet was part of a thread, which is clear because it makes no sense on its own. Once again, I am talking about cisgender heterosexual men. During your investigation into me, I supplied evidence of the relentless transphobic and homophobic bullying and harassment that I receive both on social media and in real life. I expected you to take this into account when assessing my social media content. I do not think either of these tweets were inappropriate or offensive and I cannot see how they would undermine the public’s trust in the medical profession. It is not clear what you have based these accusations on.

Furthermore, these tweets are two examples of the hundreds I have written about white supremacy/privilege, colonialism, and oppression. Several of them were screenshotted and sent to you by both DG and AB as evidence of my so-called ‘discriminatory comments’, yet you chose to focus on these two without explaining why. What makes these two in particular so offensive and/or inappropriate?

I believe that a commitment to social justice is a requirement of all doctors, and is underpinned by the four main principles of medical ethics. As you are aware, there is an entire section in Good Medical Practice that focuses on probity. If anything, I am improving the public’s confidence in the medical profession by standing up against injustice, oppression, and inequalities in healthcare.

I sent you 60+ pages of statements of support from people who follow me on social media, including one from a fellow GP and one from a registered psychologist. It is clear from this evidence alone that my social media content is in the public interest. Furthermore, the evidence I provided demonstrates that the medical profession is failing a lot of people by refusing to stand up against injustice and, worse still, by perpetrating harm.

Whilst your warning will not affect my ability to hold a licence to practice, it will still prevent me from working because I will continue to be unable to gain a Scottish Performers Number and I will also need to disclose it to future employers. I have already been unable to work as a doctor for almost two years because of your investigation into me. All the while there is a critical shortage of doctors across the country and the NHS is in desperate need of experienced and high calibre GPs like me to meet the ever-growing need.

However, even if you were to decide not to issue me a warning, the last 2 years have had a profound effect on my ability to trust the GMC. That was why I filed a second complaint of discrimination on the 20^th of January. On the 23^rd of January, I received the following reply:

I am sorry to note from your complaint that you feel you have been discriminated against… Unfortunately, you have not told us why you feel that this is the case. You said that you wished to use your previous complaint as a starting point, however the circumstances of that complaint are different (for example, I cannot see any evidence that you have been misgendered during the current case) and have already been addressed by way of an email, with attached letter, dated 26 January 2023.

As you are aware, the GMC processes and procedures are underpinned by statutory guidance and legislation. All staff must also undergo mandatory Equality, Diversity & Inclusion training and relevant staff are trained in how to identify and be aware of unconscious bias. These factors are aimed at, amongst other things, eliminating any potential discrimination and therefore I am also satisfied that there are adequate safeguards in place to ensure that individuals are not discriminated against on any grounds.

Since you are satisfied that there are adequate safeguards in place to ensure that I have not been discriminated against on any grounds, it is no longer safe for me, a Minority Ethnic, Transgender, Queer, Jewish doctor to practice medicine in the UK. It is clear to me that your training and safeguards have fallen short of that which the public should expect from an organisation with such an important regulatory role.

There is an alarming amount of evidence that Black, Brown, Minority Ethnic, Transgender, and LGBTQIA+ patients do not trust their doctors. Furthermore, there is evidence that the GMC is disproportionately investigating doctors who hold marginalised identities. This suggests to me that you have not worked hard enough to address your implicit bias, and my case is a clear example of this.

As a result of your actions, I believe the GMC cannot be trusted to safeguard the public’s best interest, especially when it comes to those who are oppressed. There is a disproportionately small number of transgender doctors practicing in the UK and you just lost one of them. Since you have repeatedly failed to address the complains I have raised, and you continue to act in a manner that I believe puts both patients and doctors at risk, I believe it is in the public’s best interest for me to make my dealings with the GMC public.

I have done my best to anonymise any evidence I have supplied (aside from that which is public on social media) and want to make it expressly clear that I do not wish for anyone to come to harm as a result of this open letter. My issues are not with the individuals involved, but the structures and systems that are in place to protect and uphold colonialism, oppression and white supremacy at all costs. It is time you did something to address these, and I hope that this letter highlights the many areas in which change is necessary.