News: Reporting cases to the police

27 July 2009

How the GMC deals with allegations that require external authorities

I read with dismay the article ‘Doctor crosses boundaries and abuses patient trust’ (May/June). Not a nice story at all. I was concerned that, although it seemed to me that the doctor concerned had committed an indecent assault on the 11-year-old patient, nothing was said about his being reported to the police. I think that you should clarify this; I would not want to think that the GMC was in any way shielding doctors from police investigation.
Dr Tom Parry

Generally, where we receive allegations against a doctor that raise issues of a criminal nature we advise the referrer to pursue the matter in the first instance via the appropriate authority, for example, the police. If the referrer followed our advice, we would then liaise directly with the appropriate authority and would review the outcome of their investigation. If the matter appeared serious, we would consider referring the doctor to our Interim Orders Panel, which has the power to impose an interim order of conditions or suspension before the substantive case is resolved. If the referrer was unable or unwilling to refer a case to the appropriate authority, we would likely investigate it ourselves, depending on the circumstances and the reasons given for not wishing to direct it, as advised.

In the case in question, one of the complainants did provide a statement to the police, but this did not lead to a criminal investigation. During the course of our investigation we obtained information from the police, kept them informed of progress and informed them of the hearing outcome.

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