Education and debate

The performance of doctors. II: Maintaining good practice, protecting patients from poor performance

^a London W1N 6JE

	Introduction

The public now seeks assurances that doctors remain capable and safe throughout their practising lives. For the profession this means refocusing self regulation on fully established doctors.¹ For the General Medical Council it means that all doctors on the register working in Britain must maintain an appropriate standard of practice. Where doctors do not, the GMC must ensure that action is taken, either locally or by itself. The first concern is to protect patients. The second is to find out what has gone wrong and to establish the cause. The third, wherever possible, is to help doctors recover their fitness for normal practice.

	Practising safely

The principle that doctors should be able to show that they practise safely is unarguable. Unfortunately, discussion of the means tends to be contentious because of the threat of "recertification," implying the regular testing of all career doctors. Yet there must . . . [Full text of this article]

Summary points

	Maintaining good practice

	Local professional self regulation

Maintaining good practice

	Handling dysfunctional practice locally

	The GMC: fitness to practise

Examples of serious clinical dysfunction in doctors

	What will happen?

	Looking ahead

	Acknowledgements

	References

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Relevant Article

Self regulation must be made to work

W Dale Dauphinee
BMJ 2005 330: 1385-1387. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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