The Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) has expressed serious concerns at Government plans to reform the General Medical Council (GMC).
DAUK warned the proposals go against the Williams review and would ‘dismay doctors across the country’.
It said the timing of the announced reforms was ‘troubling’, coming as the GMC appeals the clearance of Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah.
Dismay doctors
Dr Matt Kneale, DAUK co-chair, said: “Doctors across the country will be dismayed that the government has abandoned the cross-profession consensus established by the Williams review.
“We were promised the GMC would lose its power to appeal its own tribunal’s decisions.
“Instead, this consultation retains that power and creates new ones. At a time when the GMC is actively appealing the clearance of a doctor found to have committed no misconduct, the timing could not be more troubling.
“The framing of this announcement – as though the GMC has been too slow to punish doctors – ignores everything we know about how the GMC operates.
NHS Staff Survey results
“Its own data shows ethnic minority doctors are disproportionately referred.
“The recently-published NHS Staff Survey shows one in 10 doctors were physically attacked at work.
“The safety crisis in the NHS is not that doctors are getting away with misconduct.
“It is that doctors are being attacked, burned out and driven from the profession while a regulator with a proven track record of bias is handed yet more power.”
Human impact
DAUK also pointed to the human impact of the current regulatory process. The GMC’s own rolling three-year data shows that 36 doctors died while under investigation or being monitored between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2023. The GMC reported fewer than three suicides to protect individual identification.
Dr Shonnelly Novintan, DAUK’s Learn Not Blame lead, said: “The framing of the reforms focus on individual doctors rather than addressing systemic pressures, and this contributes to a worsening blame culture at a time when doctors under investigation already face high suicide rates.”
The reforms, the Government said, are a major modernisation of medical regulation, describing them as the most significant changes since 1983.
Rapid review
They follow a rapid review conducted by Lord John Mann into antisemitism and other forms of racism in the health service.
Alongside wider proposals, the Government is consulting on the first tranche of recommendations from Lord Mann’s review.
The GMC Order will consult on delivering these recommendations into law, introducing three key changes:
- The GMC will retain its existing right to appeal decisions made by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) to the courts.
- The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) will receive new powers to challenge interim decisions made by the MPTS, and the GMC will receive equivalent powers.
- Regulators will be required to share information with the PSA when requested.
Charlie Massey, GMC chief executive and registrar, said: “This is an important and long-awaited step towards a more responsive and compassionate approach to healthcare regulation.”
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