Reform
Since 2001, the GMC has itself become answerable to the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE), which oversees GMC activity and may challenge fitness to practise verdicts which it considers too lenient.
The GMC is also accountable to Parliament through the Health Select Committee. In its first report on the GMC, the Committee described the GMC as "a high-performing medical regulator", but called for some changes to fitness to practise rules and practices, including allowing the GMC the right to appeal verdicts of its panels which it considers too lenient.
In the 2000s, the GMC implemented wide-ranging reforms of its organisation and procedures. In part, such moves followed the Shipman affair. They followed a direction set by the UK government in its white paper, Trust, Assurance and Safety. One of the key changes was to reduce the size of the Council itself, and changing its composition to an equal number of medical and lay members, rather than the majority being doctors.
In 2011, the GMC proposed further changes to separate its role in investigating cases from its role in managing doctors' hearings by establishing a new body to run hearings, to be called the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service. The GMC had previously been subject to criticism for combining these two roles under one roof.
A forthcoming reform to medical registration is the introduction of revalidation of doctors, more similar to the periodic process common in American states, in which the professional is expected to prove his or her professional development and skills. Revalidation is scheduled to start in 2012.
On 16 February 2011, The Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley, made a Written Ministerial Statement in the Justice section entitled ‘Health Care Workers, Social Workers and Social Care Workers’ in which he said:
| “ | I have today laid before Parliament a Command Paper, "Enabling Excellence-Autonomy and Accountability for Healthcare Workers, Social Workers and Social Care Workers" (Cm 8008) setting out the Government's proposals for how the system for regulating health care workers across the United Kingdom and social workers in England should be reformed. | ” |
Within the Command Paper:-
| “ | Should any regulators wish to propose mergers with other regulatory bodies to reduce costs as part of this work, the Government will view these proposals sympathetically. If the sector itself is unable to identify and secure significant cost reductions over the next three years, and contain registration fees, then the Government will revisit the issue of consolidating the sector into a more cost-effective configuration. | ” |
Sir Liam Donaldson, a former chief medical officer had recently told the Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust public inquiry that he had been involved in discussions about the Nursing and Midwifery Council merging with the General Medical Council, but proponents had “backed off” from the idea and the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence was created instead to share best practice. Sir Liam said the CHRE had been “reasonably successful” but it would be “worth looking at the possibility of a merger” between the GMC and NMC.
Read more about this topic: General Medical Council
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