GMC Chair receives a Knighthood for services to Medicine in the Birthday Honours list.
Peter Rubin, the Chair of the General Medical Council has been awarded a Knighthood for services to Medicine in the Birthday Honours list.
As Chair of the Council and before that as Chair of the Education Committee, Sir Peter has made a huge contribution to the GMC and to medical regulation in general. He was also Chair of the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board from 2005 – 2008.
Sir Peter's career has been hugely varied. He has been involved in extensive research on the safe and effective use of drugs in pregnancy; writing books on clinical pharmacology; and leading the development of the first new Vet School in the UK for over half a century.
It is medicine though that has been at the heart of his career which has been largely devoted to research and clinical practice. Surprisingly perhaps, it was chance that led him to the GMC – back in 1998 it happened to be Nottingham’s turn to nominate a Dean of a Medical School. He has never looked back. As he puts it: “I really enjoy being Chair of the GMC - what we do is important and fascinating and it is a pleasure working with such a great group of people."
The GMC’s Chief Executive Niall Dickson has welcomed the award: “I am sure everyone at the GMC joins me in congratulating Peter. This is richly deserved and is recognition of a highly distinguished career in medicine and research, as well as a great contribution to medical education and regulation. It also reflects well on the GMC and what Peter has achieved in the years he has served this organisation.”
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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 and training
- dealing firmly and fairly with doctors whose fitness to practise is in doubt
Merger of PMETB with GMC
The functions of the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board (PMETB) transferred to the GMC on 1 April 2010, creating a simpler and clearer framework for the regulation of medical education and training. All stages of medical education and training now fall under the GMC’s remit. For more information please visit http://www.gmc-uk.org/.
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.
