There’s a quiet counter-revolution going on in medical regulation.
Anyone remember the Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator? What do you mean “no”? The OHPA was set to put the final nail in the self-regulation coffin. As an independent board, it was supposed to take over the adjudication process from the GMC next April.
The GMC would still investigate the fitness to practise of doctors, but the OHPA would pass judgement on the evidence. Well, not anymore. OHPA has been dispatched by the new government (and it’s not happy). The GMC will continue to pass judgement but has to learn how to do it more effectively apparently.
It’s not the only quango to suffer under the new government. Anyone remember the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence? Oh come on, don’t you bother reading all this stuff we produce. The CHRE oversees the professional regulators and can review any decisions it doesn’t like: this effectively introduced double jeopardy for some unfortunate doctors.
Anyway, it has to become a self-funding body in the shake up and the regulators will have to foot the bill.
What does this tell us? It tells us that the drivers around professional regulation have changed with the new government.
Firstly, the paranoia surrounding Shipman, and the subsequent inquiry, is starting to fade.
Secondly, the coalition government appears far less antagonistic about doctors than the one it replaced. It’s early days, but doctors appear to be part of the solution rather than the problem. Health ministers no longer appear to be trying to put doctors ‘in their place’, making them accountable shift workers who operate under a draconian regulatory system.
And, thirdly, the government wants cheaper regulation.
It’s interesting to note what’s happened to the General Social Care Council (the GMC for social workers). The GSCC is to be closed with its responsibilities falling to the Health Professions Council. The regulator was moving to a self-funding model, but the government decided this could be done more effectively under the HPC. Social worker’s annual fees are still set to double.
I guess the GMC must already know it has to be careful. The government sent it a clear message when it delayed revalidation for another year. It wants to support safe practise, but not at any price.
The GMC is due to spend £85.2m in 2010. Fortunately for it, doctors largely foot the bill. I’d still suggest it’s going to have to spend that money wisely otherwise we could see the rise of the ’supra-professional regulator’ as we have seen rise of the supra-inspection bodies.
Tags: GMC
It’s increasingly ridiculous that we have to pay for the GMC, but I can’t see it ending any time soon with the economic downturn.
Agree with Andy. Why should we pay for the people who might decide to end our careers? It’s not as if it’s an ‘old boys’ medical club anymore - at least half are lay people who can’t possibly understand the pressures we work under.