With the support of the BMA, the creation of the Medical Act in 1858 provided patients and the public with a clear understanding of who can, and who cannot, practice medicine. It created the first medical regulator, the General Medical Council (GMC) who, until 2024, solely regulated doctors.
Since 2019, the GMC has fully embraced the decision by Government to become a multi-professional regulator and now regulates non-medically qualified physician associates and anaesthesia associates alongside doctors. Ignoring the profession's clear objections, it has chosen to do so in a way that blurs professional boundaries, causes confusion for the public and healthcare staff, and undermines its founding purpose to protect patients.
But despite its primary function, the GMC has recently argued it has no statutory duty to protect the public, and no legal duty of care to the doctors it investigates, even though doctors face an increased risk of suicide while under investigation.
The BMA has long called for the voice of the medical profession to be central to GMC decision making, for doctors to be treated fairly when subjected to investigation, and for the GMC to tackle racial bias in its processes. The GMC’s decision not to anonymise protected characteristics when considering formal investigations continues to risk disproportionate tribunal referrals of ethnic minority doctors.
A new BMA survey of members found that only 16.2% have confidence in the GMC’s ability to protect the public, while only 10.8% believe they can regulate in a way that distinguishes doctors from medically unqualified providers.
Just as the BMA campaigned for a sole medical regulator in the 1800s, now we must renew our calls for a regulator that understands the unique skills of doctors and protects patient safety.
Join our BMA register to show your support for a new professional regulator
Later this year the Government will set out plans to reform the Medical Act. By joining our new doctors’ register you are adding your voice to thousands of other clinicians who want the Government to ensure doctors have a regulator that:
Puts doctors at the heart of decision-making
A new regulator must
- have medical practitioners directly elected by the profession to its governing body, with medical practitioners making up the majority of all decision-making bodies.
Protects patients and is clear on who is and who is not a doctor
A new regulator must:
- have a clear statutory duty to protect the public, rather than this simply being an overarching objective
- regulate medical practitioners only, providing the public with a clear distinction between uniquely qualified doctors and non-doctor roles
- enforce new statutory protections of medical practitioner titles, to ensure the public are not confused by perplexing NHS job titles that blur the lines between doctors and non-doctors
- ensure that the roles of other healthcare professionals do not impinge upon the protected remit of highly skilled doctors
- understand the nuanced views of the public when seeking to promote and maintain public confidence in the medical profession
Treats doctors fairly in fitness to practise processes
A new regulator must:
- have a legal duty of care towards the doctors it regulates and those who are subject to investigation
- have full statutory separation from an independent medical tribunal service that considers cases of medical practitioners only
- have no right to appeal medical tribunal outcomes, the right of appeal being held by a single separate body
- have no right to request a doctor’s reflective material when investigating concerns
- be subject to formal investigation by an independent authority when complaints by doctors are made against it
- adopt the criminal standard of proof (beyond reasonable doubt) in investigations and hearings, rather than the civil standard (on the balance of probabilities)
- not be able to consider concerns more than five years after they came to light that fail a public interest test
- continue to recognise health as a separate ground for impairment to support a compassionate approach to those under investigation
- provide doctors with the option to ‘opt-in’ to receive notification of all complaints made against them, regardless of whether they met the threshold for investigation
- anonymise personal information and protected characteristics following receipt of a referral, before consideration of whether a formal investigation should be conducted appoint independent legal assessors to advise tribunal panels on questions of law arising during hearings, rather than using legally qualified panel chairs
- progress cases promptly and within designated time frames agreed with the medical profession
- have no automatic obligation to hold tribunal hearings when a custodial sentence follows a criminal conviction, such as in cases involving peaceful climate protest
- establish a range of professional standards that fully recognise a medical workforce working in a system under significant pressure.
Supports high-quality medical education and training, benefitting doctors and patients
A new regulator must:
- ensure innovative approaches to undergraduate medical education do not compromise the UK’s current high standards
- maintain the point of full registration, ensuring doctors benefit from essential clinical experience provided in the first year of postgraduate training before advancing from provisional to full registration
- protect in law the standards and requirements to the CCT and licence to practise, to guard against reform of these vital assurance standards that don’t have the backing of the medical profession, for example, the dilution of standards and the shortening of medical undergraduate education.
- legally recognise GPs and specialists, and protect the standards required to attain specialist recognition while ensuring the register accurately describes the full range of current SAS grades.
Sign our doctors’ register to support our call for a new regulator that understands doctors and protects patients.
Please note that adding your name to the BMA’s register does not replace your existing GMC registration. You must retain this to continue to practice.
Your register entry and personal information will remain confidential and will not be published. Anonymised data may be shared, such as the total number of register entries, to inform and assist the BMA’s work on regulatory reform, including in BMA publications. Please see our privacy policy.
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