Regulating doctors, ensuring good medical practice

GMCtoday – January/February 2010 issue is published

Press Release

05 Feb 2010

The latest edition of the General Medical Council’s magazine GMCtoday can now be viewed online.

In this issue:

  • In his first interview with GMCtoday since joining the GMC as Chief Executive this year, Niall Dickson talks in detail about how his previous work for the BBC and the King’s Fund has prepared him for taking up the reins of the GMC. He also discusses how he thinks the medical profession and the GMC are viewed by patients and the public and how he sees the GMC’s future.
  • GMCtoday looks at some of the issues to be covered by a major consultation into revalidation being launched shortly. Doctors, members of the public and employers will have the opportunity to influence how revalidation will be introduced, how revalidation could affect information contained in the medical register and what doctors and employers will be required to do.

Also covered in this issue:

  • A feature on GMC fitness to practise hearings, including information on new guidance and a look inside the new ‘Virtual Hearing Room’ which will allow doctors and members of the public to enter a GMC hearing, to see who else is attending and why.
  • A look at forthcoming GMC guidance, including a project to support doctors in communicating with patients who have a learning disability with helpful online resources, and the GMC’s Standards and Ethics team’s plans for 2010.


 

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 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 www.gmc-uk.org or 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 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.