Doctors should to be held to account for behaviour of colleagues, say MPs

Doctors could risk losing their licence if they fail to report fitness to practise concerns about their colleagues, MPs have recommended.

In its first annual review of the functions of the General Medical Council, the House of Commons Health Committee has called for the regulator to send “a clear signal” to doctors that they are at as much risk of being investigated for failing to report concerns about a fellow doctor as they are from poor practice on their own part.

Senior doctors and clinical team leaders in hospitals would be most accountable, but there would be “questions asked of everybody,” said Stephen Dorrell MP, chair of the health committee.

“Every practising doctor and nurse knows that …