The General Medical Council is moving offices in Manchester but wants to reassure people that this will not affect the work undertaken by staff at the GMC
The General Medical Council (GMC) office in Manchester is set to relocate to new premises in the city at 3 Hardman Street.
The relocation began on January 8 and it is anticipated that the majority of staff - over 300 employees - will have been relocated by 1 February 2010. Fitness to Practise hearings will continue to be held at the Hearings Centre at St. James’ Buildings on Oxford Street.
GMC employees that will be moving to the new office include those working in the Contact Centre who are the first port of call for all registration enquiries and staff who are involved in investigating and taking forward complaints made about doctors.
“We are looking forward to the move and want to reassure doctors and the public that we are working to ensure there is no disruption to the work undertaken at the General Medical Council.”
The telephone number for the General Medical Council Contact Centre will remain the same – 0161 923 6200.
Notes to Editors:
For further information please contact the Media Relations Office on 020 7189 5454, out of hours 020 7189 5444, email press@gmc-uk.org, website http://www.gmc-uk.org/.
The General Medical Council registers and licenses doctors to practise medicine in the UK. Our purpose is summed up in the phrase: Regulating doctors, Ensuring Good Medical Practice.
The law gives us four main functions:
keeping up-to-date registers of qualified doctors
fostering good medical practice
promoting high standards of medical education
dealing firmly and fairly with doctors whose fitness to practise is in doubt
Merger of PMETB with GMC
From 1 April 2010, (subject to legislation) the functions of the Post Graduate Medical Education and Training Board (PMETB) will be transferred to the GMC, creating a simpler and clearer framework for the regulation of medical education and training.
In February 2008, the Secretary of State announced that PMETB would be merged with the GMC, following a recommendation from Sir John Tooke’s Independent Inquiry into Modernising Medical Careers. Following the merger, all stages of medical education and training will fall under the GMC’s remit. For more information please visit http://www.gmc-uk.org/ or http://www.pmetb.org.uk/
Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator (OHPA)
From April 2011, the adjudication of fitness to practise cases involving doctors will transfer from the GMC to a new body called the Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator (OHPA). OHPA is being established under the Health and Social Care Act 2008. It is being created to ensure clear separation between the investigation of fitness to practise cases and the process of determining whether a professional’s fitness to practise is impaired.
To begin with, the new body will be responsible for making decisions on fitness to practise cases brought forward by the GMC and, in time, the General Optical Council. Over time, other regulators of healthcare professionals may transfer their adjudication functions to OHPA. For more information about OHPA, please visit http://www.ohpa.org.uk/
The GMC will remain the regulator for doctors, continuing to set the standards for professional practice and receiving and investigating allegations about their fitness to practise.
© 2010 General Medical Council Press Office
