Fewer doctors are being referred to General Medical Council fitness to practise panels, despite a continuing rise in the number of complaints against doctors in the United Kingdom, which reached a record high last year, the GMC has said.

In 2011 the GMC received 8781 complaints—a 23% rise from the 7153 in 2010, says the regulator’s second annual report.1 The likelihood that the GMC will investigate a doctor has also risen, from one complaint in 68 in 2010 to one in 64 in 2011.

However, most complaints (4914 (56%)) in 2011 were closed without further action because they did not raise issues of fitness to practise, a rise from 2010, when half of complaints ended …