GMC Suspends Dr. van Velzen

The following text was launched on the
General Medical Council website today, 2 February 2001.

The Interim Orders Committee has today decided to suspend Dr van Velzen's registration. The suspension takes effect immediately and will continue until final decisions are made on the charges against him. The decision is subject to review after six months.

Dr van Velzen's Career Between 1988-1995. Dr van Velzen was employed as Professor of Foetal and Infant Pathology at Alder Hey. He left to take up a job in Canada in 1995.

In March 1999 the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia investigated Dr van Velzen following a complaint about his handling of pathology investigations. Dr van Velzen was issued with a reprimand by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia in April 1999.

The Canadian authorities did not notify the GMC at the time of van Velzen's reprimand. They would not normally notify us unless a doctor's registration is affected.

We were first notified in October 1999 of concerns about Dr van Velzen's practice whilst at Alder Hey at which point the Redfern inquiry had already begun. Our judgement was that as the doctor was not in the UK it was not necessary at that stage to take immediate interim action. That decision was kept under review.

The GMC subsequently received information from Alder Hey that van Velzen may have been investigated by the Canadian authorities. The GMC contacted the Canadian authorities in December 1999 and received information from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia in February 2000 regarding their reprimand of van Velzen.

Dr van Velzen has not worked in the UK since 1995.

The report into organ retention at Alder Hey was published by the Department of Health on January 30, 2001. The GMC convened an emergency Interim Orders Committee on 2 February, to consider whether to limit Dr van Velzen's registration pending consideration of his case.

The IOC came into existence in August 2000. It was set up following a change in law at the GMC's request. We can now consider interim measures against a doctor's registration much more quickly than we were previously able to.

The Committee, which meets in private unless a doctor requests a public hearing, has met eleven times since it was established in August and plans to meet at least once a month this year.

Interim Orders Committee: panel members in the van Velzen case