Dr Jane Barton should have been struck long ago. And in my opinion she should be in prison for, in effect, killing twelve of her patients.

Correction: The first sentence in my title should say 'Dr Jane Barton should have been struck off long ago.'

The Telegraph reports that Dr Jane Barton faces being struck off after prescribing overdoses of powerful painkillers to 12 elderly patients who died in her care. When you read the report you will be astonished to discover that the GMC panel "concluded that the facts found proved (both admitted and otherwise) would not be insufficient to support a finding of serious professional misconduct."" and that "allegations that Dr Barton failed to assess patients appropriately before prescribing opiates were not proved.""

You will wonder, along with me, whether the members of the panel are half-wits, though you will doubtless come to conclude, as I have long held, that the GMC offers no protection to the public at all, since it routinely treats erring doctors with the utmost leniency, however grave their error and however grave the consequences.

The GMC should be scrapped. It is a waste of money and by its continued leniency towards negligent and incompetent doctors effectively it endangers the health of the public.