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GMC promises more compassionate approach to doctors under investigation

BMJ 2015; 351 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h6717 (Published 10 December 2015) Cite this as: BMJ 2015;351:h6717
  1. Clare Dyer
  1. 1The BMJ

Letters from the General Medical Council to doctors facing investigation will use more “sensitive” language from early next year and will lay more emphasis on the support services available to them, after a report into a series of suicides by doctors undergoing fitness to practise investigations.

The report in December 2014 looked at the 28 cases from 2005 to 2013 in which doctors had killed themselves during an investigation by the regulator, and it made a number of recommendations for reform.1 Of these suicides, four happened in 2012 and a further nine in 2013.

The review by Sarndrah Horsfall, an independent consultant and former chief executive of the National Patient Safety …

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