THE president of the General Medical Council (GMC) branded doctors struck off as characteristically "arrogant and incompetent" during a live radio interview.
Speaking on Radio 5 Live, Sir Donald Irvine claimed that several doctors involved with scandals appeared to be so arrogant that they failed to notice even their own incompetence.
Sir Donald also said that the health service should be more candid in order to avoid further scandals.
When asked what he thought of doctors such as gynaecologist Richard Neale, who was struck off the medical register after a string of botched operations at Northallerton's Friarage Hospital, in North Yorkshire, Sir Donald said: "In the many cases I have seen, the single characteristic that gets doctors in trouble with the GMC is the total disregard for other people.
"If you take a degree of certainty over a limit, it really does become arrogance, it becomes a belief in self, and a denial of incompetence, and that's what results in these sorts of cases - their arrogance."
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