Mission statement for NHS Ltd

Doctors want to keep the GMC, but scrap the new

super-regulator that can overrule its decisions.

Responding to a motion by Somerset LMC for the GMC to be scrapped, Dr Hamish Meldrum, GPC chair, said the alternative would be much worse. 'Do you really want to get rid of professionally-led regulation?' he said. 'Do you believe what you will get in its place will be any better?'

Representatives demanded the abolition of the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE) because it exposed doctors to double jeopardy.

The CHRE was set up last year and can challenge 'unduly lenient' verdicts by the GMC and other regulators.

Consultant Dr Kevin O'Kane said: 'Doctors can be tried by five independent tribunals. It makes a nonsense of our legal system and destroys the concept of self regulation.'