The Career Civil Servant Who "Ruined" Britain’s Watchdog for Doctors

Reviewing the recent policies of the General Medical Council under chief executive Charlie Massey

The General Medical Council exists to regulate doctors in the UK, ensuring they are properly trained, competent, and held accountable.

It is supposed to be an independent regulator, funded by doctors via fees and managed by an ethical chief executive to safeguard the public.

Under Charlie Massey’s leadership since 2016, however, the council appears to have progressively abandoned neutrality in favour of ideological activism.

For context, Massey is a career civil servant, having previously worked in HM Treasury, the Cabinet Office, Department for Work and Pensions, the Pensions Regulator and the Department of Social Security.

It has recently been revealed that the GMC erased disciplinary records of trans-identifying doctors, preventing patients from seeing past suspensions or warnings if they occurred before a doctor “transitioned”.

The GMC claims internal records remain linked, but admitted such information has been hidden from the public.

Investigative journalist Charlotte Gill reported in February 2024 that at least 77 doctors had changed their gender on official records since 2003—the vast majority without legal documentation.

Only two provided a Gender Recognition Certificate, the legal requirement under current law.

When Baroness Dianne Hayter raised concerns about patients’ right to know their doctor’s biological sex at the time, the GMC dismissed it.

The council argued that the medical register’s purpose is to confirm training, not provide information on sex. Further suggesting that patients could request a chaperone instead—without any way of knowing in advance if they needed one.

The GMC admitted it stopped requiring a Gender Recognition Certificate in 2010, claiming many trans-identifying doctors found it “too difficult” to obtain.

Yet its own guidance states that doctors must obtain patient consent before any examination or treatment. A principle one would assume becomes meaningless if patients are denied access to basic information about their doctor.

Prior to this, in September 2023, Massey and the council removed all references to “mothers” from maternity guidance, replacing “surrogate mother” with “surrogate parent”.

Its menopause policy was also rewritten to exclude any reference to women.

In a equally bizarre decision, earlier that year, the GMC decided to stock tampons in men’s toilets, insisting it was necessary to “meet the needs of all colleagues and visitors.”

Beyond gender ideology, the GMC’s decisions have raised more ethical concerns.

An investigation by the British Medical Journal in March 2023 revealed that the council holds nearly £900,000 in investments in companies linked to causing obesity and diabetes, including Nestlé, McDonald’s, Starbucks, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, and Unilever.

The sometimes fatal consequences of persistently consuming fast/ultra processed-foods has been well-documented over the years.

Most recently, a peer-reviewed study published in the British Medical Journal in 2024 found that such foods can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease-related death by 50%, type 2 diabetes by 12%, and all-cause mortality by by a staggering 21%.

The council has full discretion over what companies they invest in.

Its portfolio is managed through the Churches, Charities and Local Authorities Investment Management fund, and they have already vetoed investment in gambling and pornography-tied companies.

Elsewhere, during Covid, the GMC took an increasingly authoritarian stance on medical debate.

In 2022, Massey warned doctors that they could face regulatory action for publishing “misleading” information online.

Last December, this was formalised in the new Good Medical Practice guidance.

The GMC also referred several doctors who questioned mainstream Covid policy to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service—a statutory committee responsible for conducting hearings where concerns about a doctor's fitness to practice are reviewed.

Among them was Dr. Sarah Myhill, suspended for nine months in 2023 for promoting nutritional treatments for Covid.

The tribunal ruled that her claims about supplements making vaccination “irrelevant” lacked scientific basis and posed a “potential risk” to patients. She promoted using vitamins and iodine.

Equally concerning is the GMC’s lack of action.

Last year, when reports surfaced that several celebrity TV doctors had received payments from Covid vaccine manufacturers without disclosing them, all while promoting their products to the public, the council was nowhere to be seen.

Code 36 of the GMC’s newly-updated Good Medicine Practice guide states:

You must be open and honest with patients about any interests you have that may affect (or could be seen to affect) the way you propose, provide or prescribe treatments, or refer patients.

It's Not Been A Good Month For Our "Impartial" Celebrity TV Doctors...

Under Massey’s leadership, the GMC has potentially hidden misconduct from patients, rejected objective biology, invested in corporations contributing to the health crises they’re meant to solve, referred doctors to tribunals for advocating common vitamins, refocused its remit to regulate doctors’ online speech and failed to refer doctor for breaking clear conflict of interest guidance.

It’s like he’s the long, lost captured cousin of Dame June Raine… Except, he’s paid much more handsomely:

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