GMC to suggest a move away from self-regulation
Indications are that the General Medical Council is to suggest a change in its composition so that doctors no longer have a majority. The proposal
comes ahead of the GMC’s full response to the Donaldson review “Good
doctors, safer patients”, which was published at the same time
as the Foster review
of the regulation of non-medical professions (PJ,
22 July, p91).
The Financial Times reported last weekend that the GMC wants to move
away from self-regulation to genuinely independent regulation. “Professionally
led regulation suggests that doctors lead and others follow,” Sir
Graeme Catto, president of the GMC, told the newspaper. “That is
no longer a helpful description.” In a statement, Sir Graeme suggested
that the council should have a balanced composition, which reflects the “four
main constituencies” — patients and the public, doctors,
the NHS and other health care providers, and medical schools and medical
Royal Colleges — in order to command their confidence.
“In our view the regulator must be, and be seen to be, independent
of the Government as the dominant health care provider in the UK; and
also
independent of the dominance of any single constituency,” he said.
The FT also reported that Laurence Buckman, chairman of the GMC working
group for the British Medical Association, said: “We would regard
this as the end of professional self-regulation, and that would be completely
unacceptable.”
The GMC is currently formulating its full response to the Donaldson review
and hopes to have this drafted by the 1 November council meeting before
the consultation’s final deadline on 10 November.
Letters p391 |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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