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By law all complaints received by the GCC must be considered by an Investigating Committee (consisting of both lay and registered members). Their role is not to decide on the details of the case, but decide whether there is a case to answer:

Would the conduct (if proven) be unacceptable professional conduct?

  • Is there enough evidence to make a case?
  • Is it in the public interest to consider the case?
  • Where they find a case to answer, it is put forward to a full hearing of the Professional Conduct Committee (around 12 cases a year).

While the majority of IC cases are closed with no further action without comment, occasionally the IC will find there is no case to answer, but nevertheless use the opportunity to provide advice to the registrant. This advice will not be recorded on the public register, as it is not a formal sanction, but the fact that advice was issued may be called upon if another complaint is made against the same registrant.

Background to the case

A patient made a complaint that a chiropractor was inappropriate and insensitive when suggesting they needed to manage their weight.

The patient alleged that the chiropractor:

  • Told the patient that they were “too big for their skeleton”.
  • Patted the patient’s stomach while telling them to lose weight
  • Told the patient to lose weight and skip meals.
  • They also suggested that the patient’s weight was responsible for their infertility (which had been disclosed to the chiropractor as part of their pre-treatment screening).

The Code states that a chiropractor:

  • F4: You must take account of patient communication needs and preferences.
  • F5: You must listen to, be polite and considerate at all times with patients including regarding any complaint that a patient may have.

Investigating Committee Finding

Although it may be appropriate to advise a patient about weight management, this case serves as a useful reminder as to the importance of communication with patients. This is because the manner in which the advice was communicated  in this instance was seen as inappropriate and disrespectful by the patient which triggered the making of a formal complaint to the regulator.

Further Reading

Further advice on Enhancing Patient Care Through Effective Communication was previously published by the GCC as part of our Professionalism in Chiropractic project.