BMA demands GMC chief executive’s resignation

The BMA has demanded the resignation of the GMC’s chief executive and a ‘performance review’ of the regulator’s current senior management team.

At their annual representative meeting (ARM) in Liverpool today, BMA leaders called on the union to set out ‘a vision for a reformed GMC’ or for a new ‘alternative regulator’, and to lobby for this.

They passed a motion affirming that the GMC is ‘no longer fit for purpose’ and ‘does not represent the interests of the public or the medical profession’.

The motion also called for the resignation of the GMC’s chief executive, Charlie Massey, who has been in the role since 2016, as well as a performance review of the senior management team and of appointments and appraisal processes within the regulator’s management.

Yesterday, the union’s chair of council called for the GMC to be replaced with a new professional regulator ‘for doctors only’ and launched a new register ‘solely for doctors’, which members were asked to sign in support of a new regulator.

Doctors leaders have continued to raise concerns as regulation of physician associates by the GMC officially began in December.

At the ARM this morning, BMA representatives pointed to disproportionate fitness-to-practise proceedings and the refusal from the GMC to set out ‘safe standards’ for PAs as some of the reasons why reform is needed.

Proposing the motion, Dr Daniel Jones, from the Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan BMA division, said: ‘Reviews are needed across the board, and we need to ask ourselves how these people got appointed and how they are continuing in post.

‘What has gone so wrong at the GMC? An overhaul is badly needed, and many of these people should be let nowhere near medical regulation ever again.

‘We need this rotten GMC to change, or else we need to change regulator and leave the GMC. We cannot continue as we are, it is a risk to our patients and it’s a risk to our profession.’

Dr Becky Lavelle, from the East Yorkshire division, who spoke in favour of the motion, said: ‘We hear of laptops, of Oyster cards, and of people performing in climate protests as a problem with fitness to practise.

‘When did fitness to practise have to be a rod with which to beat doctors rather than a measure of the standard of care and expertise that we bring to healthcare?

‘It’s time the BMA actually takes action. The GMC needs to know that change will happen and we will make it happen.’

Dr Schnell D’Sa, who also spoke in favour of the motion, said: ‘Anaesthetists United are in High Court proceedings because the GMC refuses to set safe standards for PAs and AAs compromising patient safety.

‘Any other public body would change its leadership after failures like these. The BMA’s new doctor only register proves we already have the first building block of a better regulator.’

Pulse has approached the GMC for comment.

It comes after last month the Government committed to reforming GMC regulation within this Parliament after years of delays.

In 2023, the BMA’s ARM passed a no confidence vote for the GMC, and called for its leadership’s dismissal, and in 2018, it also supported a vote of no confidence in the GMC following the controversial court case involving Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba.