Professional Responsibilities

Question 1

Fitness to practice:
S35C(2) of Medical Act 1983

Answer 1

States that a doctor’s fitness to practice can be impaired by any of all of the following:

• Misconduct
• Deficient professional performance
• Criminal conviction or caution
• Adverse physical or mental health
• Not having the necessary knowledge of English
• A determination by a regulatory body either in the UK or overseas to the effect that fitness to practice as a member of the profession is impaired.

Question 2

GMC, GDC, NMC Regulators

Answer 2

• Set the standard of behaviour, competence and education that professionals must meet.
• Address concerns raised about professionals who are unfit to practice because of poor health, misconduct or poor performance.
• Maintain registers of professionals who are fit to practice (FTP).
• Set the requirements for re-registration and/or revalidation for each profession.

Question 3

GMC investigation

Answer 3

Where concerns about practitioners, GMC will investigate.
Then they will take one of three steps:
1. No further action – conclude case
2. Issue a warning or offer undertakings
3. Refer to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service

Question 4

When will GMC refer to MPTS?

Answer 4

• Serious or persistent departures from good medical practice
• Statutory duty to protection the public: promoting and maintaining the health and safety and well-being of public, public confidence in the profession, proper standard and conduct for doctors.

Will also consider if there is a realistic prospect of establishing that a doctor’s fitness to practice is currently impaired to a degree justifying action on their registration and to do so they apply the realistic prospect test:
They must:
1. Decide if the allegations are serious enough to warrant action on the doctor’s registration.
2. Consider whether the allegations are capable of proof to the required standard → more likely than not that the alleged events occurred.

Question 5

Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service

Answer 5

If a case is referred to MPTS, they can:
1. Take no action
2. Agree to accept undertakings
3. Impose conditions on license for up to 3 years
4. Suspend registration for up to 12 months
5. Erase doctor’s name from the register

• For the doctor’s conduct to amount to misconduct, ‘it must be linked to the practice of medicine or [else it must be] conduct that otherwise brings the profession into disrepute, and it must be serious’ (GMC v Calhaem [2007])
• Mere negligence does not amount to misconduct unless particularly serious. A single act/omission may amount to misconduct if particularly grave but is less likely to amount to misconduct than multiple acts/ omissions (GMC v Calhaem [2007])