Fitness to Practise consultations
This page contains details about current public consultations on proposed changes to our fitness to practise procedures.
The proposed changes aim to make the fitness to practise process simpler and swifter for both patients and doctors while continuing to protect patients.
Contents
The future of adjudication: making changes to our fitness to practise rules and our constitution of panels and Investigation Committee rules
The consultation will run from 14 May 2012 to 06 August 2012.
This consultation is about making changes to the rules which goven the procedures we follow when investigating concerns about doctors' fitness to practise and how cases are heard by fitness to practise panels.
Our aim is to make the pre-hearing and hearing procedure shorter, reducing the stress for all involved. We also want to make the Rules simpler and more flexible.
This is the first part of a larger piece of work to establish a statutory to adjudicate concerns about doctors' fitness to practise - the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS). Some of the proposals are designed to prepare for establishing the MPTS.
You can download the main consultation document here:
How to respond to the consultation
You can take part in an online version of the consultation and submit your response by registering with our consultation website.
Or, you can download the main consultation document and respond in writing, either by email or by sending your response to:
Claire Kilner
Policy & Planning Manager - Fitness to Practise
The General Medical Council
350 Euston Road
London
NW1 3JN
Email: ftpconsultation@gmc-uk.org
Reform of the fitness to practise procedures at the GMC - Changes to the way we deal with cases at the end of an investigation
This consultation has now closed. A summary of our response was published in the June 2011 Council papers (pdf, 65kb)
Fitness to practise is the most contentious and high profile area of our work. Maintaining a register of fit and proper individuals to practise medicine requires us at times to remove or restrict a doctor's registration. However, the purpose of our Fitness to Practise work is not to punish doctors but above all to protect patients and to provide opportunities to remediate and rehabilitate doctors.
This consultation is intended to invite public discussion of our proposals for changes in our fitness to practise procedures to introduce a more proportionate approach to the way we deal with cases at the end of an investigation.
You can download the main consultation document here:
The consultation closed on 11 April 2011. For more information about next steps, see our reforms page.
The Future of Fitness to Practise Adjudication and the establishment of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service
This consultation has now closed. A summary of our response was published in the July 2011 Council papers (pdf, 93kb)
We are currently seeking views on plans to establish a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service which would be responsible for running hearings and for decisions by panels which in future would be called medical practitioner tribunals.
The Tribunal Service would be separate from our investigation of cases and our presentation of them to tribunals. It would be led by a Chair with significant judicial experience.
Our consultation also contains proposals for a number of reforms that will modernise the way hearings are run, speeding up the adjudication process and reducing the stress for all those involved. These proposals include the use of legally qualified chairs, greater use of written evidence and more effective management of cases as they are prepared for hearings.
You can learn more about our proposals by downloading our consultation document here:
Our consultation follows the Government’s decision not to proceed with the establishment of the Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator (OHPA).
More information about our current adjudication process can be found in the hearings and decisions section of our website.