The GMC’s newly appointed mental health expert, Professor Louis Appleby, will advise the regulator on ’further legal changes’ it could make to allow it to improve its fitness-to-practise (FTP) process, Pulse has learnt.
In an interview with Pulse, the GMC’s chief executive Niall Dickson, said that Professor Louis Appleby – who has been recruited by the regualtor to review its FTP process – will advise on potential legal changes that it might seek from the Government to improve its processes.
Professor Appleby was recruited by the GMC earlier in the month to interrogate the GMC’s fitness-to-practise procedures to ensure that it is more ‘compassionate and sensitive’ to the needs of vulnerable doctors – following the publication of last year’s GMC review that found 28 doctors had died while under investigation.
Mr Dickson told Pulse: ‘We’ve already started mapping our process very carefully and look at each individual stage that we go through.
‘And what we want Louis to do is to review that process and advise us on further things that we can do within our current legal powers, and also advise us if there are further legal changes that we might seek from the Government in order to try and make the system better.’
