January 2007

A communication from the General Medical Council
January 2007, Issue 32

What's New?

Welcome

Welcome to the first edition of the GMC e-bulletin for 2007.

In this edition we have an update on the Children's Guidance consultation. We would like to encourage you to provide your comments on the draft guidance and persuade any children or young people to also get involved (as they have the opportunity to win one of three i-pods).

In addition, the GMC is aiming to recruit a number of consultant psychiatrists to become Medical Supervisors and Examiners to work with our Fitness to Practise department and we have details of how you can help.

There is also a summary on the recent Alliance of UK Health Regulators on Europe (AURE) consultation response which urges the European Commission to ensure a legal framework exists for greater information exchanges on healthcare professionals.

There is also information on the Student Fitness to Practise consultation that is underway, that will provide guidance to Medical Schools and students on professional behaviour expected of students.

There is a round-up of activity from our busy GMC Scotland office and Northern Ireland, and information on two new pieces of supplementary guidance; Writing References and Acting as an Expert Witness.

Please continue to send us your feedback, questions and ideas for topics you would like to see covered in future editions.

Standards

Children's Guidance: Consultation and Competition

In November 2006 the GMC launched its consultation on new draft guidance for doctors about their role and responsibilities towards children and young people. We are currently running online consultations for both adults, and children and young people, and have also just launched a poster competition to encourage children and young people to participate.

This new draft guidance expands upon the new duties on doctors to safeguard and protect the health and well-being contained in the new Good Medical Practice. It is for all doctors and not just those who routinely see children and young people as patients. It is also intended to be of use to children, young people and those with an interest in their care.

Consultation for adults

There is only one month left in the consutation process, and the GMC is keen to hear your views on the new draft guidance.

You can take part in the consultation online or alternatively you can request a paper copy. Please telephone 020 7189 5404 or email: childrensguidance@gmc-uk.org.

Consultation for children and young people

There is a parallel consultation for children and young people, asking their views on the same issues. We are also holding a competition to design the cover and promotional material for the new guidance.

Details of the consultation and poster competition are also available online.

Encouraging children and young people to take part

Please share your views on the new draft guidance and tell any children or young people you know about their consultation and poster competition , and the chance to win one of three iPod nanos!

The closing date for both consultations and the poster competition is 2 March 2007.

Should you need any further information on the draft guidance or the consultation, please do not hesitate to contact Michael Keegan or Suzanne Fuller in the Standards & Ethics Team or log onto the GMC website.

Appointment of Medical Supervisors and Examiners

Can you find the time to support your colleagues?

While the primary purpose of the GMC's Fitness to Practise procedures is to protect patients, our procedures for dealing with doctors who are ill have assisted the rehabilitation of a great many doctors, enabling them to return to practice. This is largely due to the professionalism and dedication of our medical supervisors and examiners.

Effective examination and supervision of doctors lies at the heart of the GMC's procedures for managing cases involving ill health.

Case examiners and Panels rely on the reports of medical supervisors and examiners to inform their decision-making. These reports assist in maintaining public safety and providing a framework for sick doctors to return to practice.

Where the GMC has restricted a doctor's registration, supervision reports allow the GMC to monitor that doctor during a period of rehabilitation or retraining. For this reason the GMC views the roles performed by medical supervisors and examiners as of the utmost importance in maintaining its regulatory functions.

We are looking for dedicated consultant psychiatrists who want to give something back to their profession by becoming medical supervisors and/or examiners. The roles would involve approximately 8 examinations per year, and/or the supervision of up to 3 doctors.

For further information and to apply, please visit our website. The closing date for applications is 9 February 2007.

UK healthcare regulators call for European information exchange

Alliance of UK Health Regulators on Europe (AURE) has been lobbying the European Commission to propose a new legal duty on European healthcare bodies, to exchange disciplinary and registration information about healthcare professionals, and to act on it.

This request has been made in a joint response, to the European Commission's consultation regarding Community Action on Health Services by AURE, a coalition of all ten UK health and social care professional regulators.

It is clear that the UK undoubtedly benefits from the high level of mobility of healthcare professionals within Europe, registering many dedicated professionals who contribute positively to healthcare in this country. However, there is concern that there may be a minority who exploit free-movement rights and put patients at risk.

AURE believe that the introduction of a new legal duty on regulators across the EU to exchange registration and disciplinary information, and to act on it, would provide the tools to enable free-movement, whilst at the same time ensuring the safety of patients and the public.

Much of the recent media attention around healthcare in Europe has largely focused on the potential for increased numbers of patient 'tourists'. There is already a significant level of mobility of healthcare professionals across European borders. In 2005, over 7000 practitioners from the EEA came to the UK to register with AURE's members and find work. However, At present there no system in place to flag up those found guilty of professional misconduct or criminal offences or otherwise considered to be a danger to patients.

The scale of mobility of dentists, nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals across European borders, means that emphasis must be placed on ensuring greater information is available to patients, the public and health professionals alike.

For further information go to AURE website.

Student Fitness to Practise

In 2005 the GMC's Education Committee conducted a formal consultation, Strategic Options for Undergraduate Medical Education , which looked into the scope for change to student fitness to practise arrangements within medical schools: that is, the arrangements to respond to concerns about students' conduct and health rather than their academic progress.

The outcome of the consultation supported the development of new student fitness to practise arrangements.

The GMC and the Council of Heads of Medical Schools (CHMS) have now jointly developed draft guidance for medical schools and students on student fitness to practise. The guidance is intended to balance a positive approach about the professional behaviour of students with more specific advice on how to develop decision-making and procedures in student fitness to practise. The guidance covers the topics:

a. The professional behaviour expected of students.

b. Areas of conduct which cause concern about student fitness to practise.

c. The key elements in student fitness to practise arrangements.

Professor Peter Rubin, Chair of the GMC Education Committee said: “Patient safety is at the heart of the work done by both the GMC and CHMS. It is important that all medical schools have in place robust fitness to practise procedures that protect patients and are fair to students.”

Once issued the Guidance on Student Fitness to Practise will allow greater consistency in the way medical schools ensure their students are fit to practise. This will in turn allow the GMC to include graduates in the provisional medical register with greater confidence in their fitness to practise.

The Guidance on Student Fitness to Practise will be issued in time for the 2007 student intake.

The consultation closes on the 10 April 2007 and is available consultation.

GMC Scotland

GMC Scotland has moved across Edinburgh to offices at The Tun, next to the Scottish Parliament. The new premises offer excellent accessibility and additional meeting room space, ensuring that we can meet the requirements of the profession, the public and all our stakeholders. The offices will be used to host training, briefing and consultation meetings, supporting the GMC's commitment to active engagement. An early commitment is to hold the inaugural meeting of the Scottish Public and Patient Involvement Advisory Forum in early February.

After the successful launch of the new GMP guidance, GMC Scotland is working closely with the standards team to ensure that Scottish stakeholders get every opportunity to feed into the current children's guidance consultation. A seminar is scheduled to complement a range of stakeholder specific meetings. A particular success has been the promotion of the consultation through the websites of a variety of intermediary and advisory bodies with a strong interest in children and young people.

GMC Scotland has also been working to maximise input into the development of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups Bill, which is currently progressing through the Scottish Parliament. The Bill proposes a ' vetting and barring' scheme for people wishing to work with children or vulnerable adults.

GMC Scotland recently submitted a response to a Scottish Executive consultation Public Health Legislation in Scotland . The consultation contains proposals on information sharing between doctors, NHS Boards and other organisations on patients with certain ' notifiable ' conditions for the purpose of protecting public health. The kinds of notifiable conditions are broadened in the proposals to include non-communicable ones such as obesity. Our response referred to our guidance Confidentiality: Protecting and Providing Information and highlighted the need to balance decisions to disclose information with any possible effects on trust between patients and doctors. We also called for doctors and the public to be educated on the reasoning behind some of the proposals.

For further information on the GMC Scotland office please visit their GMC Scotland office.

Northern Ireland Consultation Seminar of GMC's draft Children's Guidance for doctors

As part of the consultation process, the GMC is holding a roundtable seminar on draft Children's guidance in Belfast on Monday 12 February 2007. The purpose of this event is to discuss the draft guidance and listen to the views of Northern Ireland stakeholders and interested parties to ensure Northern Ireland specific issues are reflected in the final Guidance. Attendance at this event can be arranged by emailing  Nichola Mallon.

Supplementary Guidance: Writing References and Acting as an Expert Witness

Two important pieces of GMC draft guidance have today been published online for consultation. Acting as an Expert Witness explains how the principles set out in the GMC's core guidance, Good Medical Practice apply to the work of the medical expert witness; and Writing References addresses common questions about the information that doctors should include when writing references for professional colleagues. The GMC are calling on interested parties, especially the profession, to let them know whether the draft guidance suits their needs.

Acting as an Expert Witness includes advice for doctors on giving evidence, keeping knowledge up-to-date, how to deal with conflicts of interest and when to raise concerns about other doctors. The main principles emphasise practising within the limits of professional competence, explaining where there is a range of opinion and verifying data accuracy. The draft guidance also stresses that for doctors to be competent as an expert witness they must be up-to-date in their discipline and understand how to construct a court report, how to give oral evidence and understand the framework of law for the area they work in.

Doctors are frequently called upon to write references. Accurate and honest references are key to prospective employers recruiting the right person for the job and candidates also need to be confident that references written about them are accurate and reliable. Inaccurate references could lead to an unsuitable candidate being appointed, which in some cases could put patients at risk of harm. Writing References aims to ensure that doctors are aware of their duty to provide information about a candidate's professional competence, their conduct and any other information that could put patients at risk. Personal information, for example regarding a doctor's health should also be included where it is judged to be necessary to protect patients from risk of serious harm.

To read the draft guidance and respond to either of the consultations please go to the GMC GMC website.

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