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Gateways to the Professions

3. GMC guidance and disabled people in medicine

3.2 Disability, ill-health and fitness to practise

It is important to differentiate between disability and ill-health in relation to fitness to practise. Having an impairment does not mean that a person is in a permanent state of poor health.

However, it must be recognised that the term 'disabled person' in the Disability Discrimination Act covers people with long-term health conditions; and that means they are protected by disability discrimination.

A disabled person can be in good or poor health. Some impairments, such as some mental health conditions, however, are also illnesses. Some impairments, such as HIV or AIDS, can also be infectious. Other conditions can fluctuate or deteriorate which may affect performance.

Good Medical Practice does not stipulate that a doctor has to be in good health in order to practise. However, the GMC states strongly that, if necessary, doctors must seek and follow advice from a suitably qualified professional about their health.

This point is reinforced in Medical Students: Professional behaviour and fitness to practise,published in 2007 by the GMC and the Medical Schools Council. This sets out how medical students are expected to behave, bearing Good Medical Practice in mind.

In particular, that guidance says that:

• students should be willing to be referred for treatment and to engage in any recommended treatment programmes
• students do not have to perform exposure prone procedures in order to achieve the expectations set out in Tomorrow’s Doctors; students with blood-borne viruses can study medicine but they may have restrictions on their clinical placements, and will need to limit their medical practice when they graduate.