The General Medical Council (GMC) will be asking 7,000 doctors whether black and minority ethnic doctors are unfairly treated during fitness-to-practice proceedings.
Following concerns over the high number of BME doctor who face fitness to practice proceedings, the survey will aim to ensure that the GMC’s standards are applied consistently.
By drawing an anonymous sample of doctors on the register, the survey aims to uncover view on how fair the GMC is in:
– The process of getting on the register
– The revalidation process
– Dealing with concerns about doctors through the fitness to practice procedures.
The research, undertaken by the National Centre for Social Research, will also cover doctors’ confidence in how the GMC protects the public.
GMC chief executive Niall Dickson said: “As an organisation we are committed to listening and improving what we do. We know that we can be controversial at times and that we must do more to understand concerns about the work we do. “A year ago we held our first ‘Fairness’ conference bringing together leaders from across healthcare. We made a number of commitments at that event including obtaining better data, which is why we are keen to hear from doctors to understand the factors that influence their perceptions of the GMC. This will help us ensure that we are regulating as fairly and objectively as we can. This feedback will also to help to make sure we apply our standards consistently and address any concerns that doctors raise through the survey.”
