GMC stalls on publication of Colman report

The General Medical Council decided last week not to put the independent report into the conduct of council member Jennifer Colman into the public domain until ongoing legal issues have been resolved. The long awaited report of the inquiry led by George Staple QC, a leading City of London lawyer and former head of the Serious Fraud Office, was made available to council members in February. The report, which so far has cost the GMC £500 000 ($790 000; ‡730 000), details a year long investigation into Colman's role on the council and a series of issues that have arisen since her election to the GMC in 2000. Colman claims she has been prevented from sitting on committees and subjected to a whispering campaign since she told the Charity Commission in 2002 that fellow members of the council had fiddled expenses. She told the BMJ that she objects to the inclusion of certain personal information in a report that could …