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GMC Complaints
GMC Complaints and You
GMC Complaints – The General Medical Council (GMC) are an independent organisation that helps to protect patients and improve medical education and practice across the UK. The GMC have the responsibility for registering doctors to practise in the UK. Their primary purpose is to protect the public. In order to do this, they promote and maintain:
- the health, and safety and well-being of the public
- public confidence in the profession
- proper standards and conduct for doctors.
The GMC take the view that every patient should receive a high standard of care. Their role is to help achieve that by working closely with doctors, their employers and patients, to ensure that the trust patients have in their doctors is fully justified. The GMC website sets out what actions the General Medical Council can and cannot do with respect to the complaints it recieves.
If you have had complaints made against you to the GMC, get experienced legal help.'
What action can the GMC take in response to complaints?
If there has been a GMC Complaint, before the GMC can take action in order to to stop or limit a doctor’s right to practise medicine, they need sufficient and appropriate evidence that their fitness to practise is impaired. This might be, for example, because they:
- have not kept their medical knowledge and skills up to date and are not competent
- have taken advantage of their role as a doctor or have done something wrong
- do not have the necessary knowledge of the English language to practise medicine safely in the UK
- are too ill, or have not adequately managed a health problem, to work safely.
The GMC can also issue a warning to a doctor. This would be issued where the doctor’s fitness to practise is not impaired but there has been a ‘significant departure from the principles set out in our guidance for doctors, Good medical practice. The General Medical Council will share a warning with a doctor’s employer and also with any other enquirer during a five-year period. Importantly, a warning will not be appropriate where ‘the concerns relate exclusively to a doctor’s physical or mental health’.
What are the limits of the GMC complaint process?
The GMC can’t:
- deal with concerns or complaints about nurses, pharmacists, dentists, opticians, hospital or practice managers or administrative staff, or anyone who is not a registered doctor;
- normally give you a detailed explanation of what happened to you. This can only come from the doctor or health provider
- order a doctor to provide the treatment you want
- pay you compensation
- fine a doctor
- order a doctor to give you access to your records
- make a doctor apologise to you.
- With everything GPs are now doing to contribute to the success of the NHS, when GMC complaints are levelled against a doctor, they deserve good legal representation. Source
If you are facing GMC complaints, get expert help!
Our GMC Defence Barristers are here to help!
Get in touch with us for professional advice and assistance with your case
At GMC Defence Barristers have considerable experience in dealing with healthcare regulators and representing doctors who face a wide range of GMC complaints. We frequently advise and represent doctors facing GMC proceedings from the outset often challenging whether there is a case to answer. We offer representation at interim orders hearings through to substantive hearings and can appeal the decision of the GMC to the High Court.
If you require legal assistance with GMC malpractice allegations, please contact us.
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