Juniors will have role in new GMC procedures

The BMA Junior Doctors Committee will maintain and update a list of doctors willing to act as assessors in the General Medical Council's performance procedures which will be introduced in September. Junior doctors who are interested should contact the JDC secretariat at BMA House.

Earlier this year the chairman of the BMA council wrote to the GMC because it seemed that doctors were to be excluded from acting as assessors because of the requirement to have completed five years' specialist experience and to be on the Specialist Register. When the president of the GMC, Sir Donald Irvine, attended the last JDC meeting he explained that the council did not expect that it would be necessary for junior doctors to be covered by the procedures because the normal training and supervision arrangements should deal with instances where a junior doctor's performance was inadequate. But if the council decides that a performance assessment is appropriate the assessment panel will always include a junior doctor, probably from the specialist register. The GMC will ask the JDC and the royal colleges for names of doctors who will receive appropriate …