Behind the white coat a writer is bursting to escape. Professor Rod Griffiths, retired director of public health for the West Midlands, is here to tell us about his debut novel: The Rag Doll Falling
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Rod Griffiths has a propaganda following, and a reason to write his book. Allegations of neglect and incompetence on Ward 87 of City General Hospital, Stoke-on-Trent was taken to the attention of Prof Griffiths by Dr Rita Pal who was a house officer at the time. Griffiths was the then Regional Director of Public Health, and ordered doctors beneath him to carry out an investigation but they could not find any evidence to support Dr Pal’s allegations.
What happened next was a little messy, and had it not been for the then recent case of Dr Shipman the media would not have picked up on it, but they did and it led to a lot of bitterness and mudslinging. But finally, independent assessors at the GMC found no case to answer and the case was closed. Subsequently, money is now being spent on building a new hospital: http://www.uhns.nhs.uk. Had Dr Pal not brought up these issues, maybe this wouldn’t have happened?
Rod Griffiths qualified from Birmingham medical school in 1969 and worked in General Practice for about five years before going into Public Health. He received an CBE in 2000 for services to public health. He retired from the profession in 2007.
Drug companies have been fined over four and a half billion dollars in the USA for offences related to marketing drugs.
This 95,000-word medical thriller gets behind the motives that underlie such behaviour. This is fiction but the author has twenty years of medical experience at high levels in health care management in the UK.
The story centres on a new cancer drug with a potentially lethal side effect. In any circumstances it would be hard to diagnose the problem; but for professor Jim Brogan, the epidemiologist running the trials of the drug, things are made much more complicated.
Jim’s girl friend Val, is with Danni Foster when she crashes while skiing and remains in a coma, unable to explain that she has taken the drug.
Things get worse when Val’s daughter develops Hodgkin's disease. Val desperately wants Danni to recover and Mary to have the new drug, and that puts pressure on Jim, particularly when he tries to explain to Val that until the trial is ended he doesn’t know if the drug is safe or effective.
The company that make the drug gets a large injection of American money, but unknown to Jim the people behind the money are crooked. They plan to make a fortune from selling the drug and launder their money at the same time. It gradually emerges that Danni, still in a coma, was also involved in this scheme.
Danni’s collapse disjoints the American’s plans and they hire Fiona, an ex escort to try to work her way into Danni’s networks and from there on things get very complicated as the different motivations of the key players interact.
Jim Brogan’s ethical stance and good nature is stretched in all directions. Al Vincent, the American Godfather behind the money, develops agendas of his own; settling old scores, and using the drug’s side effect as a murder weapon.
Somehow, Jim Brogan must save Danni, make the drug safe and get Mary cured, before Al Vincent does too much damage. The final surprise comes from Fiona as the part that Al played in her tragic past becomes clear.
