General Medical Council

The Medical Act 1858 established the General Council of Medical Education and Registration of the United Kingdom as a statutory body. Initially its members were elected by the members of the profession, and enjoyed widespread confidence from the profession.

All the GMC's functions derive from a statutory requirement for the establishment and maintenance of a register, which is the definitive list of doctors as provisionally or fully "registered medical practitioners", within the public sector in Britain. The GMC controls entry to the List of Registered Medical Practitioners ("the medical register"). The Medical Act 1983 (amended) notes that, "The main objective of the General Council in exercising their functions is to protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the public."

Secondly, the GMC regulates and sets the standards for medical schools in the UK, and liaises with other nations' medical and university regulatory bodies over medical schools overseas, leading to some qualifications being mutually recognised. Since 2010, it has also regulated postgraduate medical education.

Thirdly, the GMC is responsible for a licensing and revalidation system for all practising doctors in the UK, separate from the registration system, since 3 December 2012.

Due to the principle of autonomy and law of consent there is no legislative restriction on who can treat patients or provide medical or health-related services. In other words, it is not a criminal offence to provide what would be considered medical assistance or treatment to another person – and not just in an emergency. This is in contrast with the position in respect of animals, where it is a criminal offence under the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 for someone who is not a registered veterinary surgeon (or in certain more limited circumstances a registered veterinary nurse) to provide treatment (save in an emergency) to an animal they do not own.

Parliament, since the enactment of the 1858 Act, has conferred on the GMC powers to grant various legal benefits and responsibilities to those medical practitioners who are registered with the GMC – a public body and association, as described, of the Medical Act 1983, by Mr Justice Burnett in British Medical Association v General Medical Council.

Registration brings with it the privileges, as they are described, set out in Part 6 of the Act. In reality, they comprise prohibitions for all those not registered. Section 46 prohibits any person from recovering in a court of law any charge rendered for medical advice, attendance or surgery unless he is registered. Section 47 provides that only those registered can act as physicians, surgeons or medical officers in any NHS hospital, prison, in the armed forces or other public institutions. Section 48 invalidates certificates, such as sick notes or prescriptions, if signed by someone who is unregistered. …

Since 2001, the GMC's fitness-to-practise decisions have been subject to review by the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE), which may vary sentences.

The GMC is also accountable to the Parliament of the United Kingdom through the Health and Social Care Select Committee. In its first report on the GMC, the Committee described the GMC as "a high-performing medical regulator", but called for some changes to fitness-to-practice rules and practices, including allowing the GMC the right to appeal sentences of its panels.

In the 2000s, the GMC implemented wide-ranging reforms of its organisation and procedures. In part, such moves followed the Shipman killings. They followed a direction set by the UK government in its white paper, Trust, Assurance and Safety. In 2001, freemasonry was added to the register of interests of council members that the GMC published. One of the key changes was to reduce the size of the council itself, and changing its composition to an equal number of medical and lay members, rather than the majority being doctors. Legislation passed in December 2002, allowed changes in the composition of the council from the following year, with the number of members reducing from 104 to 35, increasing the proportion of lay members.

In July 2011, the GMC accepted further changes that would separate its presentation of fitness-to-practise cases from their adjudication, which would become the responsibility of a new body, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service. The GMC had previously been criticised for combining these two roles in a single organisation.

As of 2012, doctors' licence to practice is subject to periodic revalidation, overseen and regulated by the GMC. …

Concern has resulted from several studies that suggest that the GMC's handling of complaints appears to differ depending on race or overseas qualifications, but it has been argued that this might be due to indirect factors. However a ruling on 18 June 2021 by a UK court for the first time found the GMC guilty of racial discrimination in its disciplinary procedures.

The mortality and morbidity among doctors going through GMC procedures has attracted attention. In 2003/4 between 4 and 5% of doctors undergoing fitness to practice scrutiny died. In response to a request for information in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the GMC revealed that 68 doctors had died recently whilst undergoing a fitness to practice investigation,

In an internal report, "Doctors Who Commit Suicide While Under GMC Fitness to Practise Investigation", the GMC identified 114 doctors, with a median age of 45, who had died during the previous nine years, and had an open and disclosed GMC case at the time of death, and in which 28 had died by (24) or attempted (4) suicide and recommended 'emotional resilience' training for doctors.

In a warning on "over-regulation" Dr Clare Gerada, a former chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, commented:

We already spend up to one billion pounds regulating doctors. We are one of the most over-regulated professions around and there will always be people who fall through. If we pile on more and more regulation, we will never win.

Following the suicide of Professor John E Davies from Guy's Hospital, London, HM Senior Coroner for the area wrote to Niall Dickson with her Regulation 28: Report to Prevent Future Deaths:

This is the second death of a doctor that has come before me over the last 2 years where a GMC investigation into the doctor's practice has been found to play a part.

Academics at King's College London researched the effects of increased regulatory transparency on the medical profession and found significant unintended consequences. As doctors reacted anxiously to regulation and media headlines, they practised more defensively.

The GMC was registered as a charity with the Charity Commission of England and Wales on 9 November 2001. …