GMC processes are effective and timely, audit shows

The General Medical Council (GMC) has been given a seal of approval by a regulatory body that has judged its performance.

The audit by the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence says that healthcare professionals and the public can be confident that ensuring patient and public safety is at the core of all the fitness to practise decisions made by the GMC.

The Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence found that the GMC’s processes and procedures for doctors whose fitness to practise is in doubt were “effective” and cases were “dealt with in a timely manner.” Patient and public safety, and maintaining public confidence in doctors, are the highest priorities for the GMC’s operations, it ruled.

The audit, which is the first of the GMC, also refers to its “high quality and robust procedures.” These included providing detailed guidance for its staff on dealing with complaints, ensuring a thorough approach to assessing concerns about doctors’ fitness to practise, and making timely and appropriate decisions.

The GMC’s IT and case management system were among the procedures highlighted as examples of good practice.

However, the audit did identify some areas of potential risk in the way in which the GMC currently considers cases. It underlines the need to take care where cases have been dismissed by the Crown Prosecution Service, because the service may have a higher burden of proof than is available to the council. And it needs to consider ways of ensuring that all, rather than just most, of its decisions are explained and recorded.

• The fitness to practise audit report, Audit of health professional regulatory bodies’ initial decisions, February 2010, is available at: www.chre.org.uk