BMJ  2007;334:549 (17 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39150.379676.BE

Letters

Regulation

Australia shows benefits of an independent tribunal

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

UK doctors should welcome the transfer of judging and deregistering doctors from the General Medical Council to an independent tribunal comprising legal, medical, and lay personnel.1 This change, demanded by the profession in New South Wales in 1986, resulted in legislative amendments setting up just such a tribunal under the chairmanship of a district court judge. Parties have a right of appeal to the NSW supreme court.

Advantages to the public and profession are that it is transparently clear that unpopular doctors are not scapegoated and that misdemeanours of leaders of the profession are not swept under the carpet. The tribunal has the trust of all.

An advantage for the NSW Medical Board (equivalent to the GMC) is that, since 1987, it has not had to face public opprobrium about being too lenient or too severe, as has been the case for the GMC over recent decades.

Peter C Arnold, former deputy president, NSW Medical Board

Sydney, Australia

parnold@ozemail.com.au

Competing interests: None . . . [Full text of this article]


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