GMC will get help to deal with more cases

The government has agreed with the General Medical Council's request for people from outside the council to be appointed to help deal with the heavy workload on the fitness to practise committees.

The GMC's president, Sir Donald Irvine, told the BMA council last week that the legislation would be in place by July and new members in action by November. Sir Donald was speaking during a debate on the future structure of the GMC and said that the biggest block was between doctors being screened and getting into the fitness to pracise procedures. At present one case is heard at a time; from November the council would be able to run panels in parallel.

The president said that he was aware of the difficulties that the delays caused, but huge changes had already been made. At the end of May the council would consider a five year review and would also publish service standards against which performance could be judged.

The May meeting of the GMC would also look at the requirements which were needed to enable a fast moving organisation to work. There was a range of …