The GMC and Supporting doctors?

Blog from Dr Peter Swinyard, National Chairman, the Family Doctor Association.

In an interview with GMC chair Charlie Massey, he said their strategic direction was to spend ‘the bulk of its resources supporting doctors’.

Peter was asked for a reality check on this GMC plan.

If you look at the number of complaints handled by the GMC over the last ten years, it is on a continuous upwards curve.

If you look at the number of doctors suspended or struck off, it is remarkably level, suggesting that the signal to noise ratio is getting weaker. So I support the filtering out of those complaints which are not indicative of a doctor having consistent substandard practice, which none of us would support.

The GMC has a serious image problem among doctors. The old mission statement “supporting doctors, protecting patients” seems like a generation ago.

The GMC has to get its head round what it is. If it is to be a professional external regulator, mandated by government, it should also be funded by government as a QUANGO. If it is to be a self-regulating professional body as it used to be, it needs to have a majority of doctors on its main board and then we would not object to paying for it.

As it is at present, we seem to be paying the hangman and hoping for an easy death.

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