Dr Southall Was A Rare Voice For Abused Children
Article from The Sentinel
Writer: Baronness Golding
It was I as the former MP for Newcastle under Lyme, who first asked for an investigation on the use of CNEP as a treatment for desperately ill babies with serious breathing problems. I did this following evidence shown to me by Mr and Mrs Henshall which was, for the main part, not directly related to the North Staffordshire Hospital. Since then, I have followed closely media reports of the various actions being taken against paediatricians, especially Dr Southall. I have often looked in disbelief at the virulent attacks on Dr Southall and have had many unquiet moments about the way I first dealt with Mr and Mrs Henshall’s concerns and whether I could have dealt with them in another way. This latest action by the General Medical Council in banning Dr Southall from working leaves all doctors at risk. When the third person in the room at the time spoke against the latest accusation, her independent evidence was not accepted by the GMC investigators. Where does that leave doctors’ protection against malicious patients?
Mike Wolfe’s recent column in The Sentinel on the evidence before the General Medical Council was ill informed and unbalanced, and follows the usual low standard of reporting on the case against Dr Southall.
I disagree totally with my colleague Paul Farrelly MP’s assertion that the GMC got its judgments absolutely right in banning Dr Southall from working. I have to say to him that listening to hospital gossip is not the best way to judge anyone. All doctors have their critics, some more vocal than others.
Have Dr Southall’s critics ever seen babies struggling for each breath? Have they ever looked into the face of a policewoman as she brings yet another small, unkempt and dead baby into the accident unit? Have they ever seen a mother half smother a baby and then cry out for help that the child has stopped breathing? Have they ever seen the strain on the faces of dedicated people as they struggle to bring sanity to the lives of children who have been serially abused? Have they ever listened to the words of denial of adults for the broken limbs or sickness of their children who have been serially abused? Have they ever looked into the eyes of children whose fear is locked inside them? These things I have seen. Dr Southall and other paediatricians will have seen such things many, many times. They will ask, as I have often done - who speaks for the child?
My contribution was to spend year after year as an MP, fighting to get the law changed to let children’s voices be heard in the courts. My battle was won - Dr Southall and others like him can never and should never stop being the voice of the child.
When I first met Dr Southall I was impressed by his commitment to help and protect children. Nothing that has happened since has led me to think I was wrong. Only a person who believed in what he was doing could survive the abuse he and other paediatricians have put up with for so long. I ask the question, why? These doctors hae, over the years, worked in a spotlight where their every moved was liable to be questioned. In whose interest? At what cost? The medical world should never stand still. Adults’ voices can always be heard, but who should speak for the child?
Mr Farrelly has said that “sorry” and “apologise” appear not to be in Dr Southall’s personal dictionary. I hope they are, because I wish to apologise to him and say how sorry I am if my initial concern has given fuel o what can only be described as a witch hunt, aided and abetted by some professional people who surely should know better.
Baroness Golding
