Comment Wars

I recently posted about Dr. Rita Pal, who is under investigation by the General Medical Council in the UK. There have now been 67 comments written regarding the post, and I suspect the number will continue to rise. Anonymous commenters have made several posts challenging the veracity of Dr. Pal's assertion that she is being investigated for the ludicrous charge of linking to a "secret" document from her blog. Other comments have attacked Dr. Pal from other angles. Dr. Pal has refuted the allegations of the anonymous commenters vigorously. My original post is here and more in-depth reporting can be found at Furious Seasons and the Scientific Misconduct Blog, as well as at the Register, where the story was initially reported.

I've not been very impressed with some comments, such as the one that simply accused Dr. Pal of being "borderline." I've got a pretty open comment policy (obviously), but if we're going to post comments, let's make them something other than name calling. Some of the posts have been regarding the Lisa Blakemore-Brown issue, on which my original opinion remains unchanged.

The Crime of Linking

Both Philip Dawdy and Aubrey Blumsohn (and others) have described the tale of Dr. Rita Pal, who committed the apparently serious offense of linking to a document on her website, lost her job (coincidence?) and is being further investigated by the General Medical Council. The linked document was the transcript of the case of Lisa Blakemore Brown, a British psychologist who was accused of misconduct. Feel free to read my tirade about the ludicrousness of how Blakemore Brown has been persecuted (1, 2).

The real killer here is that Pal's fitness to practice medicine is being questioned because she linked to a document that had not a thing to do with patient confidentiality and is entirely unrelated to Pal's fitness to practice medicine. Perhaps someone can explain how linking to a document makes one unfit to practice medicine...

Oh, did I mention that Dr. Pal has a blog where she frequently criticizes the British National Health Service? What a great way to silence a critic -- trump up a patently ridiculously charge in an attempt to crush her career.

Please read Dawdy's and Blumsohn's posts to get the whole story.

Update: A reader has posted a comment challenging the veracity of this story. I'm quite interested in seeing other comments on this topic as well...