The GMC Council at its next meeting in Edinburgh
on September 20 will decide whether to change the basis on which a
doctor’s
license to practise is approved in order to include the requirement to
provide information which will support a more risk-based approach to
regulation.
This approach is based on the principle that doctors who may be more
at risk should be subject to a higher degree of scrutiny by the GMC compared
with others, to whom a lighter touch will apply.
In the first instance,
the focus will be on doctors working outside a GMC ‘approved environment’ who
do not have an employer at all, or who are employed but their employer
does not have systems in place capable of providing assurance to the
GMC about their fitness to practise. The GMC would require all doctors to provide information describing
their practice, which may include for example details about the scope
of their work, the name of their employers if any and whether they practise
within their specialty or outside it. An initial information gathering
exercise would require all the UK’s practising doctors (around
120,000) to provide these details as a condition of being given a licence
to practice.
Where doctors are not working within an approved environment patient
and colleague questionnaires will be used to flag any concerns about
fitness to practise. A pilot research project from Leeds University has
suggested that these questionnaires are a potentially valid, reliable
and practical means of gathering evidence. A further commission of joint
research from CEFP and Peninsula Medical School is developing this work
and the signs are very encouraging in terms of the validity and reliability
of using questionnaires in this way.
Alongside this work, the York Health Economics Consortium has been commissioned
to provide research which, among other things, explores whether it is
possible to establish early indicators of serious impairment of fitness
to practise.
President of the GMC, Professor Sir Graeme Catto, said:
“ The GMC knows that the majority of doctors perform well
in difficult circumstances and we are determined to concentrate enforcement
resources
on the small minority who present a threat to patient safety. Once we
are able to establish where the genuine risk lies, these doctors will
be subject to greater scrutiny while others will receive a lighter regulatory
touch. We expect to work closely with employing authorities so we can
provide them with any relevant research or information which helps them
spot the warning signals and intervene before a failure in medical care,
rather than afterwards.”
Chief Executive of the GMC, Finlay Scott, said:
“ Changing the way we manage the licensing of doctors by gathering
information about their practice will be a huge step forward in terms
of enabling the GMC to analyse the activities of the medical workforce
accurately. It will provide the foundation for research which should
show us where the most risk to patients lies. This will help us simultaneously
to improve safety and, working in a more joined up way with the NHS,
to lessen the regulatory burden on those doctors who provide no cause
for concern.”
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was first released by General Medical Council (GMC) on 14th September
2005. For further information, please visit their
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