GMC fitness-to-practise hearings taking nearly two years to process
Doctor fitness-to-practise (FtP) hearings take almost two years to process on average, according to a performance review of the GMC.
The review of the regulator conducted by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA), for the period from October 2024 to September 2025, found the median time to progress FtP referrals was 95 weeks.
This is down from 106 weeks a year previously and from a high of 134 weeks (two and a half years) recorded in Q3 2022/23.
The report also found an increase in ‘cold cases’ open for three years or more – with 180 open at the end of the period compared to 159 a year earlier. The report also showed an overall increase in open cases more than one year old – at 760, up from 614 a year before (a 23% increase).
The PSA said the ‘time taken to progress cases at the early stages has not been impacted’ despite the number of referrals continuing to rise.
Elsewhere, the report found 92 cases of doctors who had restrictions on their practice overseas who were allowed to register with the GMC and practise without restrictions.
The PSA found that the GMC was unaware of this in 27 of the cases highlighted, and said when notified the regulator ‘opened fitness-to-practise cases in relation to the doctors it was unaware of and took action to restrict the practice of those who had a licence to practice’.
Responding to the report’s findings, a leading medical defence organisation said the average time to process a hearing remained too high.
Udvitha Nandasoma, head of advisory services at the Medical Defence Union (MDU), said the 95-week timescale was ‘deeply concerning’.
She said: ‘These delays have a profound impact on the doctors involved, and we see first hand the toll this process takes on our members’ wellbeing.
Ms Nandasoma said the increase in longer cases meant ‘those already in the system are left in limbo’ and are experiencing ‘considerable stress and uncertainty’.
‘It’s essential that the promised legislation is introduced next year to enable the GMC to overhaul their processes and ensure cases are resolved in a fair, timely and proportionate way. We look forward to working with the GMC to improve this process – for the benefit of both doctors and patients’, she said.
Overall, the PSA said the GMC had met each of its 18 ‘standards of good regulation’ for the third year in a row, including all five fitness to practise standards.
Responding to this, GMC chief executive Charlie Massey said the findings showed its ‘commitment to being an effective, relevant, and compassionate regulator’.
He said: ‘While encouraged by these findings, we are not complacent, and remain focused on continued improvements to how we support the professions we regulate, so patients receive safe, high-quality care.’
Earlier this year, the Government committed to reforming GMC regulation – based on legislation which is more than 40 years old – within this Parliament.
It comes after years of delays on reform, after the previous Government had agreed in 2018 to introduce legislative amendments to enable ‘swifter’ and ‘less adversarial’ FtP investigations, as well as quash the GMC’s powers to appeal FtP decisions.
In May this year, the Department of Health and Social Care had told Pulse it aimed to consult on the draft GMC legislation by the end of 2025, with the intention of laying it in Parliament around summer 2026. However, no such consultation has been launched.
Meanwhile, in September, over 30 organisations called on the Government to preserve the GMC’s ability to investigate doctors’ fitness to practise under the ‘health’ category of impairment.
In a letter addressed to health minister Karin Smyth, organisations including the RCGP and BMA asked the Government to protect ‘the most vulnerable doctors’ during regulatory investigations, and avoid taking ‘a significant step backwards’.
