This site is intended for health professionals only


Gagged and bound

I’m blogging this hurriedly, anxiously and with one eye very much over my shoulder. I really should have taken much more notice of this story. Yes, nine months ago we were warned that CCG constitutions would contain gagging clauses. And now I find myself reading my own CCG’s constitution, prior to signing, and gagging over the wording.

To paraphrase: each Member should keep confidential any Confidential Information and shall not disclose such information without the prior written consent of the Governing Body. Sounds fair enough? Well, maybe, until you define Confidential Information and Member. Confidential Information means, ‘Any information which any Member may have or acquired in relation to the CCG’ – that covers everything, doesn’t it? And Member means ‘The Members of the CCG’ – which is you and me.

In other words, we can’t say anything about the CCG to anyone. And as there’s no clear cut boundary between what is CCG business and what is day-to-day general practice, I guess that means we’ll have a gag the size of a

********************************************************

********************************************************

********************************************************

********************************************************

************************

so what I think we should do is

********************************************************

********************************************************

********************************************************

******************************************

and before it’s too late we must

********************************************************

********************************************************

**************** -

- Hang on, what’s that noise? Who are you? And what’s that you’re holding in your hand? You can’t do that, what about freedom of *******

 

Dr Tony Copperfield is a GP in Essex. You can email him at tonycopperfield@hotmail.com and follow him on Twitter @DocCopperfield