GMC is told to use restraint in appealing against tribunal findings

Three Court of Appeal judges have overturned a High Court judge’s ruling that a doctor acted dishonestly and have urged the General Medical Council (GMC) to show restraint in appealing against findings of fact in favour of doctors in regulatory cases.1

A medical practitioners tribunal decided in February 2017 that Hemmay Raychaudhuri, a locum paediatric registrar, had not been dishonest and that his fitness to practise was not impaired. It gave him a formal written warning.

The GMC appealed, and a High Court judge substituted a finding that he had been dishonest. Backed by the Medical Defence Union, Raychaudhuri appealed against that decision, and the Court of Appeal has now ruled that the tribunal was right in the first place to find no dishonesty.

Lord Justice Bean expressed “regret” that …