This is the Tenth in the Persecution Series, after The Persecution of Heretics, The Persecution of Vulnerable Adults, Harassment from the BBC to GMC, Harassment from Rolf Harris to James Coyne to Doctor Who, Persecution: Black Riders in the Shire, Persecution: Rumbles from Mordor, and fourth in the SUI Cide Series SUI Cide in Betsi, SUI Cide Trick or Treat, The SUI Cide Note.
Is what is happening down to a clash of personalities, a local vendetta – see Rumbles from Mordor, Government interference or Pharmaceutical Company interference? The cavalier lack of concern for due process might point to a ham-fisted local operation or it might point to government or company support creating a sense of invulnerability.
Creating a timeline can seem to tell a story – like looking in the flickering flames of a fire. Look closely and comment on what you see… Or if you have more beads that you think fit on this necklace please send.
2000
- June: Healy lined up as expert in the Tobin v GSK case – a paroxetine (Paxil – Seroxat) suicide-homicide case.
- July: Healy told by Charlie Nemeroff, the Boss of Bosses, that working on the suicide effects of antidepressant is career ending.
- Nov: Healy gives Invited Lecture on the Creation of Psychopharmacology in the U Toronto
- Dec: Healy gets fired from U Toronto notionally for this lecture that covers the contents of a forthcoming Harvard U Press book
2001
- June: Jury in Cheyenne returns a verdict against GSK in Tobin Homicide trial
- June: Judge in Sydney returns a verdict against Zoloft in Hawkins Homicide trial
- July: Publication of Study 329
- Sept: Panorama explore a Secrets of Seroxat program
2002
- Oct: FDA “approve” paroxetine for children
- Oct: Secrets of Seroxat airs and focuses attention on Study 329
2003
- May: Panorama follow-up Emails from the Edge appears
- June: Panorama programs leads MHRA to ban SSRIs for children
- Oct: FDA announces hearing on Antidepressants and Suicide
2004
- Feb: First FDA hearing on Black Box Warning
- Feb: GSK Document on Study 329 appears. Paxil/Seroxat ineffective – we will ghostwrite the good bits
- June: New York State Fraud Action v GSK because of Study 329
- Sept: Congressional Hearings re FDA gagging whistleblowers
- Sept: Second FDA hearing – Black Box Warning put on Antidepressants for children
2006
- Mar: Healy referred to GMC by Nutt and Goodwin – See Harassment from Rolf Harris to James Coyne to Doctor Who
- June: Because of the Study 329 settlement Steve Nissen gets access to GSK Avandia data and raises concerns
- July: GMC dismiss case against Healy as academic squabble
- Dec: FDA extend Black Box Warning on Antidepressants
2007
- Jan: Panorama’s Secrets of the Drugs Trials airs – a program about Study 329
2009
- Oct 1 Formation of BCUHB (Betsi): Wrexham take-over of N Wales.
2010
- Appointment of Managers in Mental Health in Betsi
- Hunt for Evidence against Healy begins
- Avandia withdrawn in Europe
- Passage of the Welsh Mental Health Measure
2011
- Mar: Bizarre invitation to Mental Health Review Tribunal to criticize Healy
- Sept: Andy Hughes, the only Welsh speaking psychiatrist in Wales leaves Hergest because “I could see the way things were going”.
2012
- April: Richard Tranter “constructively dismissed” leaves N Wales
- May: Effort to remove David Healy from Hergest
- July: Management Attempt to close a GMC praised pastoral system for Junior Doctors in Hergest
- July: First news of GSK’s Record $3 Billion Fine stemming from Study 329 and Avandia
- Sept: Healy Files a Whistle-blowing & Grievance process
- Oct: Imposition by Betsi of Rae Review on Hergest
- Nov: Rae Review disbanded in response to Hergest questions about who is Malcolm Rae.
- Nov: Struggle over European Medicine’s Agency commitment to transparency of Clinical Trial Data
- Dec: Wrexham Bullying removes Lena Henry as Hergest Matron.
- Dec: LH Replacement Ambiguities – unresolved 2 years later.
- Dec: Healy Whistle-blowing & Grievance process sabotaged
- Dec: Healy approaches GMC re BCUHB
2013
- Mar: Imposition of an “Improvement Program” on Hergest
- July: Summary Dismissal of Anne Ward and Shyam Kishto
- July: Publication of RIAT Article, Doshi, Jefferson, Healy et al
- July: Board alerted to Serious Illegality
- July: 35 nursing staff from Hergest become whistle-blowers.
- Aug: Whistle blowing concerns include Factor Y
- Aug: Hergest nursing staff whistle-blowing investigation starts
- Aug: Incident Manufacture re Healy on Taliesin Ward
- Aug: RIAT team including Healy begin Rewrite of Study 329
- Sept: X Factor
- Sept: Royal College Psychiatrist Hergest Review fiasco
- Sept: College give Credence to Taliesin non-incident
- Nov: AW and SK Grievance fully supported – nothing happens.
- Dec: Hergest nursing staff whistleblowing investigation kicked to long grass
- Dec: Hergest Senior Staff vote no confidence in Wrexham management.
- Dec: Strange Health Inspectorate Wales report on Hergest – parrots Management
- Dec: Welsh Government demand closure of Hergest
- Dec: Management try to move Drs Healy & Roberts out of Hergest.
- Dec: Incident in Tawel-y-Fan – now subject to police investigation
2014
- Feb: Study 329 RIAT team access GSK Periscope to look at patient level data
- Feb: Factor X intensifies
- Mar: Pre-SUI Dr Higgo has report written on Healy – See SUI Cide Note
- Mar: CASE A SUI Interview invitation
- April: Fake SUI Interview of Healy – See SUI Cide is Painless
- April: CASE B Human Rights Abuse
- April: Factor X goes Critical
- May: Second HIW visit to Hergest – HIW parrots Management
- May: Med Director intimidating letter to Healy
- June: Med Director approaches GMC and R College Psychiatrists re Healy
- June: Med Director institutes a strange non-process with Healy
- July: Factor X
- Aug: GMC investigation letter arrives
- Sept: Rewritten Study 329 submitted to Journal
- Sept: Healy responds to GMC
- Sept: Murder Mystery begins
- Oct: Healy gets Betsi docs under FOIA
- Nov: Reviews of Study 329 Arrive
- Nov: Factor Y goes critical
The next series of posts will attempt to piece the bits of jigsaw together to see whether one picture is more likely than another.
I couldn’t believe it when I saw the timeline for 2014. Dr Healy was going through so much crap of his own and yet when I contacted him in sheer desperation because I didn’t know where else to turn …. he helped.
Professor Healy I think you are a credit to medicine and science. You are what other Doctors should aspire to be and I truly mean that.
I don’t pretend to be academic enough to understand all the arguments. All I know is that your a damn good Doctor and it is an absolute disgrace that you have been reported to the GMC.
Keep speaking the truth you and please know that ordinary people like me appreciate that we have people like you.
i agree with every word that you have written Lisa – my thoughts exactly – especially your last sentence.Truth will stand the test of time – and will triumph eventually!
David Healy, Have just read your recent blogs – had no idea so much was going on behind closed doors. Last week I was at the Ablett unit and found an air of negativity about the place – completely different to my previous experiences – and wondered why.We know from the press of their present turmoil but had not expected to be treated as ‘the enemy’ on arrival! Having read all that you have said regarding Wrexham etc. I feel I understand much better how they feel and sympathise with them.Maybe Bangor will be left alone now while they pull Glan Clwyd to bits! I don’t know the Hergest but I do wish that a little of the money that they seem to have spent in Wrexham was sent in the direction of the Ablett. Shall look forward to your next instalments now!
Mary
At first glance it’s obvious to me that the Boss of bosses could make short work of a renegade professor of psychiatry close to home, and would likely consider a post in *The Shire* to be a fitting punitive exile– , and I further note that, far from bringing a sigh of relief to the Big B’s, having Healy cast into their perception of oblivion, did not stop the waves of his anti-depressant critiques from crashing all around them–
But, having my own filter through which I can’t but help to view the time line, I am apt to give a value to *Factor X* that leads me to conclusions not yet mentioned here–
I tend to believe that the dreaded Healy influence factor – state side, holds greater risk for more serious damage–
Part of the false sense of security of *grudge holders* in my neck of the woods was that they did not know what they did not know- until a local scandal introduced them to a wonderful 21st century innovation– *WWW*
At which point it became critical to revoke Healy’s membership and privilege in the brotherhood of academic psychiatry– as has been the course of action for our home grown heretics.
There are no words to describe our gratitude to you for everything you have done.
You’re a credit to your profession!
An honest , decent human being.
Dr. Healy…..we salute you!
Much respect.
Alfred & Stephnie Gatchell
Historically, a problem with witch hunts is that those being pursued were not of course witches – it was always in the imagination of the oppressors. Seems little has changed.
I have read this and the other posts in this series and like many people are concerned and saddened that David should be treated in this way. Late one Sunday evening it was David who was willing to take my call when I needed his expertise on behalf of someone I was trying to help at that time. Thank you.
This really is an appalling business.
But it is a feature of modern Britain that all institutions are corrupt, all officials and managers on the same side – we have arrived at the Breznhev-era Eastern Bloc repression by corrupt and cynical bureaucrats.
Have you ever read any of Vaclav Havel’s work – such as The Power of the Powerless? All this stuff reminds me of Havel’s descriptions of harassment and persecution of dissidents.
But Havel’s example is inspiring and encouraging, albeit bleakly so.
With best wishes, Yours, Bruce
A bead for the necklace:
May 2014- Peter Bach’s film “Sell-Out– the Abolition of your NHS”/
Sonia Poulton pumps up failure of media to alert the public
Doctors speak-out– fate of whistleblowers disclosed.
side bar: American companies buying up pieces of UK’s NHS.
Another bead?
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/nhs-could-be-carved-open-by-us-healthcare-profiteers-warns-shadow-health-secretary-andy-burnham-9292530.html
The noose seems tight around dr Healy.
But good to see this peer Professor show his support, not only us who suffer from
poorly reasearched SSRI.
Even if the timeline shows alot of persecution, Healy has also been sticking his neck out by fighting for a juste cause. And many items on the early timeline is what we now know is true.
There must be more of Healys peers that could stand up and show support?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2829569/Bulgarian-free-behead-British-holidaymaker-Tenerife-series-catastrophic-failings-NHS-mental-health-services-North-Wales.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490
Re: Annie’s posted link-
It strikes me as odd that there is such open, candid discussion about the psych assessments and dispositions of this young man’s admissions to a locked ward.
I can’t see how these disclosures are legal much less helpful to anyone trying to understand such a brutal crime.
But the real kicker is the well known fact that no one– not even a psychiatrist anointed with *divine rights* can accurately predict who amongst us–labeled or not by psychiatry, will commit a heinous violent act.(given no prior history, needless to say). The very premise of seeking to cite a failing on the part of the clinicians who encountered this young man as a means to attach blame for his act as though the cause existed anywhere but within the murderer himself, is the height of arrogance. In other words, the investigation reports are an indication of serious misperceptions of reality— and an overblown sense of [superior] capacity on the part of whichever psychiatrist led this charge—.
Any psychiatrist who does not jump on this bandwagon, who instead seeks to understand all possible causes for unusual episodes of violent behavior, and finds a very close link to the favored *treatment* offered by his grand standing peers– Well, we already know the fate of the psychiatrist who goes that route—
And the need to re-think psychiatry??
Posted on madinamerica.com ; comment on Dr. Peter Breggin’s post/latest video on the *dangers of psych drugs* – The dark corners in America have long been a cause for the delight of the *Dark Riders*.
Sinead on November 12, 2014 at 3:07 pm said:
As it is often noted on the site, the degree or severity of the reaction one receives for *speaking out* against the risk of harm caused by psych drugs, is a pretty good indication of the threat perceived by the stake holders , pharmaceutical companies and their minions , high profile academic psychiatrists.
From 2000- to the present, it has been Dr. David Healy who has consistently created the greatest threat to the perpetuation of denial regarding both the adverse effects of psychotropic drugs and the corruption within academic psychiatry.
And it is Dr. Healy who has put his career on the line by continuing to expose the greatest threat to our health and our lives, as well–
The link [below] is the latest in a series that describes a process engaged in by the management of the *new order*, corporate health care. Any whistleblower, or die hard patient advocate working within the system will recognize the classic, witch hunt tactics–
The story itself is in the several previous posts– THIS link has the time line that makes my case for acknowledging Dr. Healy’s pioneering work– and the evidence that it is hitting its intended mark!
https://davidhealy.org/persecution-sui-cide-or-homicide/
It is unfortunate that Rxisk.org was not mentioned in Dr. Breggin’s book on Psych Drug withdrawal, which I bought 2 years ago– I say this because the fact sheets *patients* are now able to take to their doctors– share with family members/friends, has given credibility to *patients*– . This site , Rxisk.org has also served to open the eyes of doctors who were complacent in their trust of safety monitoring by the FDA and pharmaceutical companies—
I am a child psychiatrist in Brisbane, Australia (currently the helicopters for the G20 heads of state are chuppa chupping overhead). I worked in the child & adolescent mental health service in Bangor as a locum psychiatrist in the early 2000’s and have posted previously on this blog about my experience of the Hergest Unit at Ysybyty Gwynedd – https://davidhealy.org/persecution-sui-cide-is-painless-in-betsi/#comment-112843
To re-iterate what I said then – the Hergest Unit I knew was well run with fabulous morale for a psychiatric inpatient service. David is held in high esteem by colleagues who have worked alongside him.
This undoubted persecution raises all the obvious questions as to why? – petty rivalry between Gwynedd and Powys (for those who know Welsh history that goes back centuries); or more likely something to do with 21st century psychiatry and pharmaceutical industry politics? The timeline is a good place to start looking.
Bureaucracies are necessary but seem to believe they need to maintain their raison d’être by either being in a centralising or a decentralising process. Here in Queensland the state health department is currently undergoing a decentralising phase. Earlier this year the state government took on the employees starting with the salaried medical officers – doctors and specialists in the public system. The onslaught was actually unbelievably savage, with threats of effectively 33% pay cuts if not signing new contracts that dispensed with the age-old medical ethics of a doctor’s duty being for patient’s welfare first and foremost. The imposed new contracts stipulated that the “profitability” of the service came before clinical decision making. Now of course there is a give-and-take between admin and medicos on cost-benefits of different therapies and service configurations, but patients would like their doctors to be advocating on their behalf. Anyway threatened mass resignations and months of meetings, rallies and even doctors walking the streets giving out pamphlets saw the goverment back down on this issue and we’ve signed new contracts that are less industrially secure than previous, but at least medical ethical aspects were not breached as had been threatened. The dirty political tactics behind the scenes shocked us and were an education in how bureaucracies can operate outside ethical standards.
That is a bit of an aside. But for North Wales the centralisation process seems to have been a disaster for the western and now probably central service. It’s not nurse Betsi Cadwaladr’s fault, she must be turning in her grave. It seems the swing towards decentralising mental health care back to 3 divisions that can be allowed to focus care for the local populace cannot come fast enough.
Keep pointing out the truth David, you are an exemplary psychiatrist, academic, colleague and great friend.
Peter
Dear David,
it is a shock, that they are still working against you. I thought after the Toronto-Case they would not try again.
I am very happy that you are still standing.
But I do not understand, why so many people help these criminals.
It is time to rethink psychiatry.
Actually we see, how much money and power is involved in these pills with the many side-effects.
Your example shows that the possibilities of the pills and pillmakers to harm can even reach new dimension. That’s frightening.
I wish you power, power, power!
Peter
I recently made a complaint to the Information Commissioner about Betsi Cadwaladr’s refusal to release the full text of the Robin Holden Report, which was made in response to the Hergest whistle-blowers’ testimony in 2013.
The Board has acknowledged that the report was written in such a way as to ensure patient confidentiality but is refusing to release any detail of the testimony on the grounds that it would breach the confidentiality of the individual whistle-blowers.
It is ironic that an employer with a track record of victimising its employees should suddenly become so protective of their right to anonymity. But a handy by-product of this form of protection is that it also keeps the whistle-blowers’ testimony from seeing the light of day – which is surely the exact opposite of what the whistle-blowers set out to achieve! (another irony)
Until reading your blog I had assumed that the whistle-blowers numbered only a handful. If you are right and some 35 nurses all felt strongly enough to speak out, then I find it truly appalling that the Board continues to hide behind the Freedom of Information Act. (the final irony)
At the time of writing the Information Commissioner is still considering my complaint and I just wonder if you might have anything to add?
You make a good point. Hard to know what to add except that BCUHB seem to me to be shooting themselves in the foot by not being transparent.
D