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Monday, July 13, 2009

Petition for Jemma Saville

Over on Twitter, there's a petition being linked in support of a visually impaired junior doctor named Jemma Saville who has not been offered a training position on the basis of disability. After starting medical school in 2002, "Jemma's vision deteriorated and she was "registered as partially sighted in 2005". The petition reads:

The medical school supported her through her visual loss, and despite some obstacles, she completed her finals and graduated as a doctor in 2008.
In 2008 she was informed that there was no position for her to go to and took some time out from the profession to make some decisions.
By November 2008 the decision was clear: that there was a reason for all that studying and determination to succeed, and it wasn't just for a piece of paper, or the letters "Dr." She gained GMC provisional registration in March 2009: the General Medical Council believe that she poses no danger to patients on the grounds of her visual impairment.

Despite this, she has not yet been offered a training post within a hospital.

This petition is about showing her support, and proving to the sceptics out there, that (with very obvious limits) people with disabilities can be fantastic doctors.

"I want to be a psychiatrist. I am great with people, kind, empathetic, understanding. I don't want to be a surgeon, or perform clinical procedures which I am not competent to do, and I certainly would never put any patients at risk. I know what I can and can't do, and this is key to any doctor being safe. I believe that even with a visual impairment I can be a very successful, inspirational doctor. I just need to be given the opportunity to prove this."

If you support Jemma, and other partially sighted doctors in the future, please add your name to the list below. And thank you so much for your support.


You can find the petition here.

2 comments:

Jemma said...

Hi, this is Jemma!
Many thanks for adding my petition to your blog.
No news as yet but I'm still hoping!

Ruth said...

Jemma,
Wishing you all the best :)