Evil Muslims raping our food and eating our wives

Just my own take on a story that is now being circulated on certain medical blogs.

A Times columnist has made an extraordinary allegation. Allegedly Muslim GPs and psychiatrists are colluding to get Muslim women sectioned so their husbands can divorce them. According to the columnist’s informant:

The women are sent for asssessment to a hospital. The GP referring them is Muslim. The psychiatrist assessing them is Muslim and male. I have sat in these assessments where the psychiatrist will not look the woman patient in the eye because she is a woman. Can you imagine! A psychiatrist refusing to look his patient in the eye? The woman speaks little or no English. She is sectioned. She is divorced. There are lots of these women in there, locked up in these hospitals.

I may look foolish in a few days by saying this, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say I think this is story is a load of old bollocks. Just another far-right scare story. The sort of thing that belongs on a BNP blog, not in one of the “quality” newspapers. Here’s why:

First off, there’s the sheer difficulty of trying to find an acute psychiatric bed for someone at the best of times, as I’m sure the likes of Reynolds and Mousie will be able to testify. All too often it’s a struggle finding a bed for people who are ravingly psychotic and suicidal. Never mind an inconvenient wife that somebody wants to quietly shunt into the psych ward when nobody’s looking.

Assuming one can find a bed, Section 2 of the Mental Health Act requires the following:

Section 2 is an assessment order and lasts up to 28 days; it cannot be renewed. It can be instituted following a “Mental Health Act assessment” by two doctors and an ASW. At least one of these doctors must be a Section 12 approved doctor. The other must either have had previous acquaintance with the person under assessment, or also be a Section 12 approved doctor. This latter rule can be broken in an emergency situation where the person is not known to any available doctors and two Section 12 approved doctors cannot be found. In any case, the two doctors must not be employed by the same organisation to ensure independence. Commonly, in order to satisfy this requirement, a psychiatrist will perform a joint assessment with a general practitioner (GP).

So, you need to find two doctors. Both have to be Muslim. Both have to be willing to completely shred a whole slew of ethical, professional and legal considerations in order to help out their mate. Not to mention being willing to risk being struck off or even facing criminal charges. And they have to be employed by two different organisations.

These two doctors then have to make their recommendations to the Approved Social Worker. Presumably the ASW also would have be both Muslim and willing to toss their professional ethics out of the window.

For the record, I’ve worked alongside Muslim doctors and social workers. If I were to suggest to any of them that there was even the slightest possibility that they would consider doing any of the above, then I would fully expect to be on the receiving end of a formal complaint for making an outrageous slur on their personal and professional character.

Then, the conniving two doctors and ASW having sneaked the poor wife onto the ward, she’s there for 28 days under assessment. While there, she will come into contact with nurses, domestics, advocates (who are there to look out for breaches of human rights). Since she “speaks little or no English” according to the story, some interpreters will also have been called in by this stage.

And none of these people are going to smell a rat?

These women, as detained psychiatric patients, will have immediate right of appeal to Mental Health Review Tribunal, which is a legal proceeding with full rights to a solicitor on the part of the patient. If so, where are the cases of this? Not to mention the resulting fallout, which would inevitably cause the Mental Health Act Commission to start snooping around and asking awkward questions.

Okay, assuming none of the nurses, domestics, advocates, interpreters etc have noticed a thing, and for some strange reason she hasn’t appealed her case. She would then also have to be re-sectioned after 28 days, this time under Section 3. Cue more conniving doctors (including the Responsible Medical Officer).

And then, 3 months after being detained, she needs to certified as consenting to her treatment. Since she’s presumably not consenting, then a Second Opinion Appointed Doctor would need to examine the case to determine whether she requires the treatment regardless of consent. No conniving evil Muslims this time. The SOAD is sent to the ward by the Mental Health Act Commission. And he doesn’t smell a rat either?

And so it goes on. Like I said, maybe I’ll be proved wrong in saying I think this story is a load of old boswellox. but I’d be willing to bet money I won’t be.

And shame on certain medical bloggers for having the credulity to take such a ridiculous story seriously in the first place.