Medical register could include voluntary conflicts of interest information

The General Medical Council is consulting on changes to its online medical register, including the voluntary inclusion of doctors’ conflicts of interest.

The register currently contains mandatory information such as a doctor’s name, qualifications, sex, and licence status. The GMC is consulting on whether the register should also include a range of voluntary additional information about a doctor, including a declaration of competing professional interests as well as information about a doctor’s higher qualifications, scope of practice, languages spoken, practice location, and a photograph to demonstrate their identity.

The register contains the details of 270 000 doctors who are registered and licensed to practise in the United Kingdom, and in 2015 it was searched nearly seven million times.

Niall Dickson, chief executive of the GMC, said that the register needed to be useful, relevant, and accessible to doctors, employers, and patients. He said, “In some ways the current register has changed little from the register of 1859—but medical practice and patients’ expectations have changed radically, and the register now needs to reflect that.”

Dickson continued, “It contains limited information about doctors, such as where and when they qualified and whether they are on the GP or specialist register. But it does not provide a complete picture about a doctor’s practice—for example, what other qualifications they may have, where they work, or if they now practise in another specialty. In many cases, years of experience and training are not reflected.”

Dickson said he hoped that the consultation would provide doctors with an opportunity to take joint ownership of their entry on the register to provide a fuller picture of their practice.