GMC 'creating a climate of fear', local GP leaders say
The GMC is creating a climate ‘where doctors practise in fear of their registration’, Scottish GP leaders said today.
Delegates at the Scottish LMCs Conference in Glasgow today voted in favour of a motion criticising the regulator, despite opposition from a GPC negotiator.
However, the conference voted down a motion expressing concern that the GMC was failing doctors, and that the fitness-to-practise process was ‘intrusive and inhumane’.
The conference voted in favour of the statement that ‘the GMC is creating a climate where doctors practise in fear for their registration’.
It also called on the GMC to allow Scotland-based doctors to attend FTP proceedings in Scotland, without the need to travel to Manchester.
Dr John Ip, proposing the motion, said: ‘I am not arguing against effective and robust regulation. The public needs doctors who are properly trained and of good quality.
‘However, I think the GMC is failing doctors and the public by creating a culture of fear in how doctors work… The FTP process is harsh, legalistic, formulaic and lacks compassion.’
He added that the process was especially intrusive for doctors with health problems, who would have to submit ‘full confidential medical records or otherwise face a negative impact on the case’.
Dr Ip referenced the GMC-commissioned report that found there had been 26 suicides of doctors going through FTP cases, which recommended a support service for sick doctors and a move towards an ‘innocent until proven guilty’ approach.
But Dr Dean Marshall, a GPC executive member, urged delegates to reject the main part, and said that the cost of moving FTP proceedings up to Scotland would be prohibitively expensive, which would be reflected in fees.
He added: ‘The [FTP] is a fair process, it is tiring, it is stressful, but it is not inhumane or intrusive.
‘It is not the GMC that is creating the climate of fear – that is patients, lawyers, and various others.’
Motion in full
That this conference:
i. believes that doctors in Scotland should be entitled to attend fitness to practise proceedings at a venue within Scotland PASSED
ii. believes that the GMC approach to fitness to practise is intrusive and inhumane FAILED
iii. believes that the GMC is creating a climate where doctors practise in fear for their registration PASSED
iv. is concerned that the GMC is failing doctors FAILED
v. demands that the GMC implement the recommendations of the independent report by Sarndrah Horsfall, Doctors who commit suicide while under GMC fitness to practise investigation. PASSED
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Readers' comments (5)
Anonymous | Salaried GP13 Mar 2015 8:33pm
ii. believes that the GMC approach to Fitness to Practice is intrusive and inhumane FAILED
iv. is concerned that the GMC is failing doctors FAILED
those who voted FAILED
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Anonymous | Other healthcare professional14 Mar 2015 8:37pm
This won't last forever. Doctors have cottoned on and won't take this forever. The GMC has answers to give. Doctors have died whilst under investigation by them. Were not talking about a small number either ( even 1 death is intolerable) but we have over 100 in the past few years. In any other industry this would not be allowed. Medicine however?. It just goes to show how low on the totem pole doctors and medical professionals are. However the good news is that, as many are well aware, uk doctors have excellent career prospects abroad where they will also be less regulated. The whole medical system in the uk is shambolic. Run by career politicians and pen pushing number crunching bureaucrats with a sprinkle of sellouts amongst our profession etc. There are many jurisdictions out there that actually treat professionals as they should be treated. Beating doctors with a stick as they do in the uk ultimately doesn't result in better healthcare!!
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Anonymous | GP Partner16 Mar 2015 12:59pm
The one change doctors had to make their voice heard and inform everyone about the truth....and they failed. Shame on all you GPs. Bow your head in shame. How do you look yourself in the mirror and how can you be true to yourself and your colleagues?
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Anonymous | GP Partner16 Mar 2015 1:11pm
I hope others in GPC have a more enlightened view - if not we are in real trouble.
To say that FTP proceedings are "not inhumane or intrusive" shows a surprising degree of lack of understanding of both the process and the experience that are widely reported and corroborated.
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Took Early Retirement | Other GP16 Mar 2015 5:09pm
Just to let you know, that I am currently away but have received a message from Greater Manchester Police that upon my return a Superintendent will be in touch with me as a follow up to my complaint of corporate manslaughter. Of course, he may just be going to tell me to get lost; we shall see.
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