News: Doctors making history

16 November 2009

Licences to practise go live for UK doctors

Doctors in the UK made history this week as the biggest change in medical regulation for over 150 years was rolled out.

In order to practise medicine in the UK, doctors need to be registered with the GMC and, as of Monday 16 November 2009, also need to hold a licence to practise.

The licence gives doctors practising in the UK the legal authority to write prescriptions, sign death certificates and exercise a wide range of other legal ‘privileges’. All doctors wanting to work in the UK must be registered with a licence, whether in the NHS or the independent sector, either on a permanent or locum basis. As of Monday 16 November 2009, 218,153 doctors were registered with a licence.

Professor Peter Rubin, Chair of the GMC explained: ‘The successful start to licensing is a major milestone towards the introduction of revalidation, a new process by which doctors will have to regularly demonstrate to the GMC that they remain up to date and fit to practise in the job they do.’

Chief Medical Officer for England, Sir Liam Donaldson, said: ‘I welcome the introduction of the licence to practise by the GMC. It is an important prerequisite for the introduction of revalidation, and a clear signal that revalidation is on its way.

‘I congratulate the GMC on its successful communication with the profession about this important change, with a 97% response rate from doctors on whether they wish to take a licence or not.’

We are now writing to all registered doctors to confirm their new GMC status. For further information visit the licensing and revalidation pages of the GMC website.

News feeds

Get RSS news feeds of GMCtoday and other GMC-related news.

Crossword

Download the GMCtoday crossword.