Helen and Mike Webberley
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Doctors Helen and Michael "Mike" Webberley are married British doctors who specialize in online transgender healthcare, via their GenderGP brand. Both doctors have been repeatedly investigated, prosecuted and subject to criminal and/or professional sanctions for their breaches of legal and professional requirements in relation to their transgender clinic which focuses on children.
Prior to her specialism in online transgender medicine, Helen Webberley was involved with Oxford Online Pharmacy, the trading name of the online arm of Frosts Pharmacy. This service was set up in 2012, and Helen was the only prescribing doctor.[1][2] Oxford Online Pharmacy was found in January 2017 not to be providing "safe, effective and well led services". After her suspension from the Medical Practitioners List for Wales, her contract with Frosts/OOP was withdrawn in April 2017. A second online GP service theonlinesurgery/doctormatt.co.uk for which Helen was the Registered Manager, was temporarily suspended in January 2017, whereupon she resigned from the service.[3] Although Helen attempted to distance herself from both companies, on the basis that she was not named in person in CQC reports, the Health Tribunal found that Helen was "at the heart of both of the services inspected".[2] In 2014 Helen's name appeared as the doctor prescribing to consumers in Maine, USA, under the brand 'Great British Drug Store'.[4]
In 2018 Helen was convicted of criminally running an online medical clinic without a licence, in relation to her websites 'gender gp' and 'my web doctor'.[5] Helen had been refused permission to run her online transgender clinic by the Health Inspectorate of Wales in August 2017,[6] and continued to run the unlicensed clinic until February 2018. She was the first person to be convicted of this offence, the district judge ruling that there was a 'clear refusal to follow the law', fining her £12,000. In addition, Helen, who originally ran the clinic from her home in Abergavenny, Wales, was struck off the Welsh Medical Practitioners List, meaning she could not work as a doctor in Wales. In refusing her appeal against this striking off, the tribunal found that she " does not accept, respect or understand external governance" and that her attitude is one of entrenched resistance to regulation and is highly coloured by her lack of integrity and candour".[2]
Her husband Mike, a former consultant gastroenterologist [7] continued to run the clinic when Helen was suspended by the GMC. After both doctors were suspended, they moved their clinic to Malaga.[8]
In May 2022 Mike was struck off by the GMC for behaviour "fundamentally incompatible with being a doctor",[9] including prescribing hormones to a nine-year-old following a 10-minute conversation with the child over Skype, with inadequate evidence to support Mike's claim that failure to prescribe the hormones would create a "real risk of self-harm and mental issues".
Helen Webberley was suspended from practise by the GMC in May 2017 for the maximum period of 18 months, which was extended for three further periods each of one year.[10] At December 2021 the GMC asked for a further suspension of eight months until a planned April 2022 striking off hearing, but only three months were granted by the court. Therefore, her suspension was lifted in February 2022 subject to conditions that she "must not prescribe, administer or have primary responsibility for any drugs", that she "must be closely supervised in all of her posts by a clinical supervisor" and "keep a log detailing every case where she consults with a transgender patient".[11] At her hearing in April 2022, 36 accusations her were found proven, 83 were not.[12] In June 2022 Helen was suspended from medical practice for two months, for putting three patients at 'unwarranted risk of harm' by failing to follow up on testosterone prescriptions for 12 and 17-year-olds, and for failing to discuss fertility risks with an 11-year-old before prescribing puberty blockers.[13]
The Webberley's GenderGP service is owned by Harland International, a Hong Kong-registered company, and its Malaga-originated private prescriptions are fillable in the UK under UK government guidelines which allow prescriptions from the EEA and Switzerland to be dispensed in the UK.[14]
External links[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ https://api.cqc.org.uk/public/v1/reports/a66ba102-6cd2-4dd3-b315-e7edec0548bb?20210119224941
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 http://phl.decisions.tribunals.gov.uk/Documents/FTT%20Decision%2022%20October%202018%20-%20%5B2018%5D%203251.PHL.pdf[bare URL PDF]
- ↑ https://api.cqc.org.uk/public/v1/reports/a1a6db29-b129-4a7b-a3be-9c2814ad43e1?20210119224912
- ↑ Farwell, Jackie (2014-10-07). "British pharmacy chain launches online drugstore for Maine consumers". Bangor Daily News. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
- ↑ "Transgender services GP fined £12,000 over registration failure". BBC News. 2018-12-03. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
- ↑ "Transgender specialist Dr Helen Webberley ran unregistered clinic". BBC News. 2018-10-05. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
- ↑ Dyer, Clare (2022-05-30). "Retired consultant is struck off over treatment of young transgender patients". BMJ. 377: o1357. doi:10.1136/bmj.o1357. ISSN 1756-1833. PMID 35636765 Check
|pmid=value (help). Unknown parameter|s2cid=ignored (help) - ↑ Gilligan, Andrew. "Suspended GPs Helen and Mike Webberley move sex change clinic to Spain". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
- ↑ Somerville, Ewan (2022-05-25). "'Reckless' doctor struck off after giving puberty blockers to nine-year-old". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
- ↑ "GMC to Extend Helen Webberley's Extension to over 5 Years". 29 November 2021.
- ↑ Dyer, Clare (2022-02-10). "GP who was suspended over care of young transgender patients can practise again under conditions". BMJ. 376: o362. doi:10.1136/bmj.o362. ISSN 1756-1833. PMID 35144969 Check
|pmid=value (help). Unknown parameter|s2cid=ignored (help) - ↑ "GP's online transgender clinic follow-up care criticised". BBC News. 2022-04-25. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
- ↑ "Transgender children GP: Helen Webberley suspended for misconduct". BBC News. 30 June 2022.
- ↑ "GPhC to look at concerns over hormone scripts to pharmacies". www.pharmacymagazine.co.uk. Retrieved 2022-05-31.
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