BMA's annual meeting expresses "no confidence" in GMC

doi:10.1136/bmj.321.7253.69

BMJ 2000;321:69 ( 8 July )

News

BMA's annual meeting expresses "no confidence" in GMC

Linda Beecham, BMJ
The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Doctors at the BMA's annual representative meeting overwhelmingly declared their lack of confidence in the General MedicalCouncil "as presently constituted andfunctioning."

Very few of the 450 representatives wanted to abolish the council; the vast majority reaffirmed support for professional selfregulation and for the principle of revalidation, although therewas criticism of the GMC's revalidationproposals.

The meeting did, however, want the council to "initiate urgent reform of its structures and functions in consultation withtheprofession."

Similar votes of no confidence were passed by the senior and junior hospital staffs conferences and by the public health conference(10 June, p 1557; 17 June, p 1626). The conference of local medicalcommittees called on the GMC to improve its performance (24 June,p1692).

Proposing the no confidence motion Dr Peter Terry, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist in Aberdeen, said: "Confidencehas been lost in the way the medical profession is regulated.. . . [Full text of this article]