General Medical Council's Performance Research Articles

Prevalence of GMC performance assessments in the United Kingdom: a retrospective cohort analysis by country of medical qualification

BackgroundThe demographics of doctors working in the UK are changing. The United Kingdom (UK) has voted to leave the European Union (EU) and there is heightened political discourse around the world about the impact of migration on healthcare services. Previous work suggests that foreign trained doctors perform worse than UK graduates in postgraduate medical examinations. We analysed the prevalence by country of primary medical qualification of doctors who were required to take an assessment by the General Medical Council (GMC) because of performance concerns.MethodsThis was a retrospective cohort analysis of data routinely collected by the GMC. We compared doctors who had a GMC performance assessment between 1996 and 2013 with the medical register in the same period. The outcome measures were numbers experiencing performance assessments by country or region of medical qualification.ResultsThe rate of performance assessment varied significantly by place of medical qualification and by year; χ2(17) = 188, p < 0.0001, pseudo-R2 = 15%. Doctors who trained outside of the UK, including those trained in the European Economic Area (EEA), were more likely to have a performance assessment than UK trained doctors, with the exception of South African trained doctors.ConclusionsThe rate of performance assessment varies significantly by place of medical qualification. This is the first study to explore the risk of performance assessment by individual places of medical qualification. While concern has largely focused on the competence of non-EEA, International Medical Graduates, we discuss implications for how to ensure European trained doctors are fit to practise before their medical licence in the UK is granted. Further research is needed to investigate whether these country effects hold true when controlling for factors like doctors’ sex, age, length of time working in the UK, and English language skills. This will allow evidence-based decisions to be made around the regulatory environment the UK should adopt once it leaves the EU. Patients should be reassured that the vast majority of all doctors working in the UK are competent.

UK doctors' attitudes to the General Medical Council's Performance Procedures, 1997-99.

The UK General Medical Council's Performance Procedures were introduced in 1997. This study aimed to assess the changing knowledge and attitudes about the procedures in British doctors at the time of their introduction and in the following 2 years. Three questionnaire surveys, of separate representative samples of 800 UK doctors, were carried out in November of 1997, 1998 and 1999. The surveys assessed awareness of Good Medical Practice, attitudes to the Performance Procedures, agreement with Duties of a Doctor as a basis for disciplinary procedures, and attitudes to the Performance Procedures. Although awareness of the procedures increased over the period 1997-99, there was no concurrent increase in agreement with the core principles of the procedures, the Duties of a Doctor, which are spelled out in Good Medical Practice. Of 12 separate attitudes to the procedures, changes were found in eight over the time period, all but two of which were negative, and not in support of the procedures. Nevertheless many doctors were changing their practice as a result of the procedures, and that proportion increased during the period 1997-99. Although doctors became more aware of the procedures, that increasing awareness was not accompanied by an increasing agreement with the procedures' underlying principles or their wider implications.

Training the assessors for the General Medical Council's Performance Procedures

Training the assessors for the General Medical Council's Performance Procedures

The General Medical Council's Performance Procedures: the development and implementation of tests of competence with examples from general practice

The General Medical Council's Performance Procedures: the development and implementation of tests of competence with examples from general practice

The assessment of poorly performing doctors: the development of the assessment programmes for the General Medical Council's Performance Procedures

The assessment of poorly performing doctors: the development of the assessment programmes for the General Medical Council's Performance Procedures

The General Medical Council's Performance Procedures: peer review of performance in the workplace.

The General Medical Council procedures to assess the performance of doctors who may be seriously deficient include peer review of the doctor's practice at the workplace and tests of competence and skills. Peer reviews are conducted by three trained assessors, two from the same speciality as the doctor being assessed, with one lay assessor. The doctor completes a portfolio to describe his/her training, experience, the circumstances of practice and self rate his/her competence and familiarity in dealing with the common problems of his/her own discipline. The assessment includes a review of the doctor's medical records; discussion of cases selected from these records; observation of consultations for clinicians, or of relevant activities in non-clinicians; a tour of the doctor's workplace; interviews with at least 12 third parties (five nominated by the doctor); and structured interviews with the doctor. The content and structure of the peer review are designed to assess the doctor against the standards defined in Good Medical Practice, as applied to the doctor's speciality. The assessment methods are based on validated instruments and gather 700-1000 judgements on each doctor. Early experience of the peer review visits has confirmed their feasibility and effectiveness.

The reproducibility of assessing radiological reporting: studies from the development of the General Medical Council's Performance Procedures

The reproducibility of assessing radiological reporting: studies from the development of the General Medical Council's Performance Procedures

Perceptions of good medical practice in the NHS: a survey of senior health professionals.

OBJECTIVES: To categorize senior health professionals' experience with poor medical practice in hospitals and in general practice, to describe perceptions which senior NHS staff have of good medical practice, and...

Professional performance

In the UK in recent years there has been an increasing awareness both within and outside the medical profession of the need to deal with doctors whose professional performance is thought to be seriously deficient. This has led to the establishment in 1997 of the General Medical Council's Performance Procedures, which are designed both to protect the public and to offer doctors the opportunity of remedial training. Recent high-profile examples of delays in dealing effectively with poorly performing doctors have led to demands from the public and the government for the profession to provide an assurance that all doctors are keeping up to date and remain fit to practise. This article describes one way in which this may be achieved.

GPs will have to pay for retraining, minister says Doctors need education in multicultural medicine

# GPs will have to pay for retraining, minister says {#article-title-2} The health minister, Mr Gerald Malone, has told the BMA that costs of remedial training by general practitioners under the General Medical Council's performance review procedures should be borne by the doctors concerned. In a letter to the chairman of the General Medical Services Committee Mr Malone says, “GPs are independent contractors and are responsible for meeting their own practice costs including the cost of maintaining their professional skills and knowledge.” The minister equates the costs of remedial training with continuing medical education and says that reimbursement should follow the normal arrangements, including conferring eligibility for the postgraduate education allowance. He does not think that special arrangements should be made for those …