The GMC exists to protect patients and support safe care. Yet for too long, through its regulatory framework and own decision making, it has been failing on both. Over the concerns of clinicians, the GMC now regulates medically unqualified physician and anaesthesia associates alongside doctors in a way that blurs the professional boundaries between the two. Doctors have voiced concerns about the GMC’s approach to regulation for many years, but despite its ambition to become a compassionate regulator, its recent arguments that it has no statutory duty to protect the public nor a legal duty of care towards the doctors it investigates shows the GMC has lost its way.
The BMA is now calling on the Government to create a new professional regulator that
- Puts the medical profession at the heart of its decision making
- Protects patients by making clear who is and who is not a doctor
- Treats doctors fairly throughout fitness to practise processes
- Ensures doctors – and their patients – benefit from high-quality medical education and training
Read more about the BMA’s ask of the Government.
