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GMC chief executive Niall Dickson to step down

The GMC’s chief executive Niall Dickson has announced that he will step down from his position at the regulator at the end of the year.

Mr Dickson, who has held his role at the GMC for seven years, said that after seven years in the role it would be the ‘right moment’ to ’hand over the reins’.

But he said he will spend the remainder of the year continuing to work on programmes of reform at the regulator, including on revalidation, the introduction of a new single medical licensing exam and the speeding up of the GMC’s fitness-to-practice processes.

Mr Dickson said that ’by the end of 2016 I will have served seven years and I think this will be the right moment for me and the GMC to hand over the reins so that there is an orderly transition in senior responsibilities’.

He added: ’We have come a long way and I am incredibly proud of what the organisation has achieved in recent years, but there will be no loss of momentum as I enter my final year in this role.

’We will continue our major reform programme – taking forward revalidation, modernising the medical register, developing a single medical licensing assessment for international and UK medical graduates, speeding up our fitness to practise procedures and making sure they are more proportionate, and pressing for further reforms of our out of date legal framework – as well as introducing a set of internal changes that will make us more responsive, and secure our financial sustainability.’

GMC chair Terence Stephenson will appoint Mr Dickson’s replacement before the end of the year.

Mr Stephenson said: ’Niall has been an unswerving advocate for patients, for dealing proportionately with complaints against doctors and for making the GMC more responsive.’