HCC head and shoulders above HPC

Podiatry Now, August, 2008 by J.R. Golding

In a recent editorial, the Health Care Commission (HCC) and the Health Professions Council (HPC) were lumped together in the same sentence as if they were of equal status.

For a start the HCC registers premises and individuals who provide surgical services. It is a requirement of law which is designed to protect the public. In that role it also protects those on the register from those who might want to do things differently.

Now look at the HPC. This is a quango in the very worse sense. Far from protecting the public, its registrants run schools in order to gain from producing a parallel group, whilst at the same time the HPC uses our money to pursue registrants for misdemeanours that most would consider internal disciplinary matters and some of which are the remit of the civil courts. Therefore it protects neither the public nor the profession. It is also exempt from the freedom of information law.

It is a small wonder that members are disillusioned with this failed organisation. The profession should be shouting loudly now. For as most of us know you do not change organisations like the HPC from the inside but by external pressure.

J R Golding, Consultant Podiatric Surgeon