| Feature Item |
| General Medical Council casts doubt on Mail on Sunday's slur against Muslim GPs Sun 15 Aug 2004 |
`I can confirm that we are not aware of a large amount of complaints about the issue of Muslim doctors failing to treat patients with STD's' [sexually transmitted diseases]
General Medical Council
|
Dr Shahid, our health columnist, contacted the General Medical Council (GMC) about the recent sensationalist front page story in the Mail on Sunday ( Muslim GPs won't treat sex diseases) which stated that Muslim doctors won't treat sexually transmitted infections asking for clarification as to whether the GMC had received any complaints on this issue.
Below we publish the GMC's response to Dr Shahid's enquiry and the official MCB response published in the Mail on Sunday last week.
GMC response
Dear Dr Dadabhoy,
Following your conversation with my colleague this morning, I can confirm that we are not aware of a large amount of complaints about the issue of Muslim doctors failing to treat patients with STD's [sexually transmitted diseases]. We did not suggest this to the Mail on Sunday Reporter [sic] - our conversation with him merely covered our guidance on this subject.
I hope this is useful,
GMC
MCB response published in the Mail on Sunday
The MCB wrote a letter to the Mail on Sunday expressing our concerns, an edited version of which was published in last week's Mail on Sunday (8/8/04). We reproduce the letter, in full, below:
Sir,
Muslim doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals contribute significantly and play an instrumental and widely acknowledged role in supporting all sections of our NHS. An increasing number of Muslim students work hard to enter medical and allied healthcare professional courses. They are driven by the motivation to serve and treat those who are ill and suffering.
We were surprised therefore by the front-page headline in the Mail on Sunday (Muslim GPs won't treat sex diseases) as we are not aware of any Muslim medical practitioners withholding or refusing treatment to anyone suffering from a sexually transmitted illness. A doctor's duty is to treat his/her patients irrespective of how the illness was acquired. Not to do so would be contrary to the ethical teachings of Islam, which requires medical practitioners to deliver humane care to all. We are not allowed to be judgmental - that is the Creator's prerogative.
The statement that the Qur'an 'forbids them from helping sufferers' is completely incorrect and represents a serious misunderstanding of the teachings of Islam. We learn from the Ahadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) that for every illness God has provided a cure thus emphasising the importance of the quest for scientific knowledge and new treatments. There is according to the teachings of Islam therefore no scope for refusing or delaying treatment 'because patients' actions have contributed to their condition'.
Nonetheless, we would be very interested to study the dossier of complaints compiled by the senior anonymous academic to assess whether a problem actually exists and, if so, the extent of it and what can be done to address this issue. We hope that the Mail on Sunday will now furnish this evidence.
Yours truly,
Dr Shuja Shafi,
Chair, Health & Medical Committee
Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra,
Chair, Mosque & Community Affairs Committee
Muslim Council of Britain
MCBDirect
|
|
| Disclaimer |
| Events are listed by the Muslim Council of Britain (the "MCB") at its discretion. The views of any organisation holding an event or any speakers at such an event are theirs alone and not those of the MCB. The MCB is not responsible for the content of external sites. The inclusion of any events on the MCB website does not amount to any endorsement by the MCB of such event or of any speakers at such event. |
|
|
