Patients' help - Handling complaints - Fitness to practise panel

The final stage of the complaints procedure is a hearing before a fitness to practise panel run by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service. The panel hears evidence and decides whether a doctor’s fitness to practise is impaired.

If the Panel concludes that a doctor’s fitness to practise is impaired it may:

• take no action
• accept undertakings offered by the doctor provided the panel is satisfied that such undertakings protect patients and the wider public interest
• place conditions on the doctor’s registration – so that they are only allowed to do medical work under supervision, or so that they are restricted to certain areas of practice
• suspend the doctor’s registration – so that they cannot practise during the suspension period
• erase the doctor’s name from the Medical Register, so that they can no longer practise at all

If a panel concludes that the doctor’s fitness to practise is not impaired, it may decide to issue a warning to the doctor.

Fitness to Practise Panels meet in public, except when considering evidence relating to a doctor’s health.

What next?

Read about another stage of the GMC’s process for handling complaints, or use the menu to go to another section.