GMC drops cases against doctors who worked at Stafford Hospital

The General Medical Council has dropped cases against four doctors who were in management jobs at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust between 2005 and 2009 when inquiries found that patients received “appalling” care and there were hundreds of excess deaths.

The GMC investigated four doctors who held management positions at Stafford Hospital—John Gibson, Valerie Suarez, David Durrans, and Diarmuid Mulherin—and interviewed 26 witnesses. But the regulator has accepted a barrister’s advice that the prospect of proving that their fitness to practise was impaired through misconduct or deficient professional performance was “almost nil.”

Tom Kark QC, who was leading counsel to the public inquiry into failings at the trust, advised the GMC, “The overwhelming preponderance of [witness] evidence is supportive of the defendant doctors. It provides a picture of …