First High Court judgment handed down

Published 26 May 2017

Today the High Court handed down judgment in the case of General Medical Council v Jagjivan.

This was the first such case to be heard since the GMC gained the right to appeal decisions made by Medical Practitioners Tribunals in December 2015, after years of campaigning for reforms to the Medical Act. The GMC’s appeal was upheld by the court.

Charlie Massey, the Chief Executive of the General Medical Council, commented on the judgment:

‘This decision by the High Court is an important landmark. In the first ever exercise of our right of appeal we have succeeded in overturning a decision which we thought did not give enough protection to patients and the public.

‘The court agreed with us that the tribunal’s failure to find that the doctor’s actions were sexually motivated was “wrong and unsustainable.” They quashed that finding and substituted it with a finding of sexual motivation. The case will now be reconsidered at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service so that action can be taken to protect patients in light of these serious findings against the doctor.

‘This judgment is an endorsement of the important changes made to the Medical Act, and illustrates how the reforms have further enhanced the our ability to protect patients from the relatively small number of doctors whose conduct fails to meet the standards which the public are entitled to expect.’

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