The Profession and the GMC after Dame Janet Smith’s conclusions from the Shipman Enquiry: The personal view of a Fitness to Practice panellist

Abstract

The GMC has come under harsh criticism after as series of highly public cases of failing doctors or medical systems and culminating in the Shipman Enquiry. As a result the GMC has undergone fundamental reform seperating the elected policy-makers from the process of adjudication. The procedures of adjudication are not widely appreciated and so are broadly described and an argument is made in defence of the reformed procedures. Caution is advised in judging the profession too harshly and bringing even more pressure on a hard pressed and still highly respected group of people, at least by their patients.