Working with doctors Working for patients

How do we engage with diverse groups?

We recognise that our interest groups are varied. The groups that are interested in our work extend across patients, the general public, doctors, institutions and organisations. That’s why we work hard to understand the views of all our diverse interest groups on the topics that matter most to them.
We do this by talking to our stakeholders both informally and formally.

We also have a Regional Liaison Service (RLS) that meet with groups of doctors and patient organisations at a regional level. They run events to promote GMC guidance to SAS doctors, locums, medical students and trainees. They also maintain relationships with patient organisations like Healthwatch, and institutions such as deaneries, and medical schools.

How we engage with patients and the public

Patient and public engagement can’t be a one size fits all approach. We interact with diverse patient groups through lots of different methods and through different parts of the organisation. All consultations on policy changes are available to the public to respond and we collect diversity data on respondees to analyse if the views were representative of diverse groups.

GMC staff were in the parades at Manchester and London Pride giving out flyers to the public about how to complain to GMC.

GMC staff at London Pride 2014

Resources and links

We have a leaflet for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual (LGB) patients (pdf) that was developed with Stonewall and GLADD (Gay and Lesbian Association of Doctors and Dentists) setting out what LGB patients can expect from their doctors.

Leaflet for LGB patients in Welsh (pdf).

How we engage with diverse doctors

We register all doctors to practise in the UK. This means that we communicate and engage with diverse doctors at every stage of their education and practice.

We run the secretariat for the BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) Doctors Forum which helps us understand the issues that affect black and minority ethnic doctors.

We have been an active participant in the British Medical Association’s Refugee Doctor Liaison Group for a number of years and seek to actively engage with refugee doctors and their support groups. We have also been working with Reache (Refugee and Asylum Seekers Centre for Healthcare Professionals Education) North West and RAGU (the Refugee Assessment and Guidance Unit) to understand the particular difficulties that refugee doctors face in registering to practice in the UK.

In 2012 and 2013 we conducted a review of health and disability in medical education and training. It looked at the challenges that disabled doctors face at all stages of education and training, including a roundtable event with disabled medical students and doctors, and produced some short films of disabled doctors’ personal experiences .

Working with GIRES (Gender Identity Research and Education Society) we have been able to improve our registration process for doctors wanting to change their gender on the register of doctors. We found out about this issue through engagement with transgender doctors.

We meet with the MWF (Medical Women’s Federation) to discuss policies that are particularly relevant to women doctors, for example less than full-time training. The MWF is also invited to comment on proposals for most key policy/operational changes.

GLADD (Gay and Lesbian Association of Doctors and Dentists), represents Lesbian and Gay doctors from across the UK. They also comment on GMC policy development and consultation.

The DIMAH (Diversity in Medicine and Health) is a national working group of medical schools and professionals who aim to improve equality and diversity training in medical education, with a particular focus on curricula and assessments.