Medigate scandal: Medic sets up petition to oust Guild President

A petition has been set up to calling for a vote of no confidence in Harry Anderson as President of the Liverpool Guild of students, in light of the Medigate  scandal.

The petition, on change.org, was set up by Medical student Thomas Powell after the Guild’s decision to axe the Liverpool Medical Student’s Society from their university societies, following a joint investigation into the Smoker script scandal by the University and the Guild.

Thomas Powell told The Tab that they needed 640 signatures, representing three per cent of the student body, to secure a result.

The petition at time of writing has over 100 supporters and demands that “In conjunction with Guild Bylaw 42.1.1, we vote for the immediate removal of Harry Anderson as President, to be replaced with someone who can show clear leadership and vision in this crisis.”

Thomas Powell, told The Tab: “All I have to say is that as a member of the LMSS, I, like my society, stand for fairness and equality.

“The guild has treated us without fairness and equality, and in serving its own interests, has isolated its own students.”

The petition comes after LMSS sent out an email to all medical students condemning the Guild’s actions. The President of Liverpool Medical School Society, Alex Fitzsimmons, and Secretary, Sophie Dodd, wrote a letter to society members justifying their actions and criticising the Guild with regards to their deratification, claiming that “LMSS were happy to comply with the vast majority [of the Guild’s recommendations]”.

The email says the investigation into the society began as a result of the Smoker scripts leak in November 2014, despite the incident being internally dealt with a month later.

The recommendations that caused the biggest clash were concerning the annual “Ladies'” and “Men’s” dinners, and the society’s fiscal autonomy.

It also claimed LMSS had rebranded the annual dinners in response and had “explicitly openly invited all [their] members, both male and female, in various forms of media including printed on the event tickets themselves and in active promotion of said events on social media.”

They also legally defended the events, pointing out that the dinners took place in accordance to the 2010 Equality Act. The LMSS even privately contacted the Equality and Human Rights Committee,  who assured them that the “events did not contravene the guidance relating to gender equality”.

LMSS were also told they are required to pay back funds gained from memberships to the Guild – although they have serious concerns in handing over the money.

Given the society had serious concerns about giving up their financial autonomy, the email claims it offered to give full transparency of their finances through online access and regular meetings, but the offer was rejected by the Guild.

The Officers add: “Every decision we have made has been with the very best interests of our, and your, society at heart.”

The email went on to suggest that The Guild did not allow sufficient time for progress reports to be seen and responded to by LMSS, with the “draft response [sent] to [LMSS Officers] as late as the night before the submission deadline, when the LMSS Officers were known to be preoccupied with an LMSS event, giving [then] little time the following day to appraise, evaluate and give the LMSS addition to the progress report.” When LMSS submitted an appendix to the report that afternoon, they were told that LMSS’ input was not in the later submitted progress report, as “there wasn’t enough time to incorporate it into [the] email”.

The email also claimed that LMSS Officers Andrew, Sophie and James were threatened with Fitness to Practice procedures by letter dated the 5th November 2015, on account of them being “uncooperative and ignoring legislation”.

It ended with a personal note from the President, stating that he “refuse[d] to be the President who served when the LMSS hit its ice berg” asking each medical student and the wider student body “to keep the society afloat”.

The President then said that “Being able to please every medical student is impossible and no society in the University is 100% perfect”.

The Tab has requested a comment from Guild President Harry Anderson about the petition and this article will be updated when he replies.