Prof Peter Rubin, chair of the GMC
Hospital Dr invites Professor Peter Rubin, chair of the GMC, and Professor of Therapeutics at the University of Nottingham, to answer 12 questions and complete a half written sentence:
1. What is the biggest challenge the profession faces?
“Well, the starting point has to be that opinion polls consistently show that the medical profession is easily the most trusted group in the UK. Over the years, doctors have felt most threatened when the profession as a whole has got out of step with public expectations and felt that change was being done to them. So I think the biggest challenge is for the profession to engage in leading change, recognising that the world around us is always changing.”
2. When did you last laugh?
“About 5 minutes ago.”
3. Which person influenced you the most as a doctor and why?
“There’s no one person who stands out, but several people have influenced me in different ways. For example, Sir George Pickering, who was my tutor for a while in Oxford, taught me the importance of seeing the world from my patient’s viewpoint. A young patient who was dying from cancer when I was a registrar taught me the importance of making decisions with your patient, not just for them. I’ve also been influenced by some pretty dire prima donnas in that I’ve been determined never to be like them!”
4. When were you most in danger?
“If you exclude school rugby in Cornwall, I don’t think I’ve ever been in physical danger.”
5. What are the GMC’s biggest priorities over the next year?
“Continuing the piloting for revalidation; the merging of PMETB; preparing to separate adjudication, while the GMC maintains its role in setting standards of practice and investigating complaints. Moving the responsibility for adjudication to the Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator will further demonstrate that decisions are fair and effective, separate from the regulators, the professions and government.”
6. What is your favourite book?
“Maugham’s Of Human Bondage really gripped me with its insight into why people do the things they do.”
7. Is the medical profession becoming over regulated?
“I certainly hope not. There are 180,000 doctors practising in the UK, of whom I’m one, and at the GMC we’re determined that regulation should be proportionate.”
8. What is your guiltiest pleasure?
“Eating Cornish clotted cream straight out of the tub.”
9. Would revalidation catch another Harold Shipman?
“No. Nor was it ever intended to. Revalidation grew out of the Bristol Royal Infirmary when it became clear doctors were working outside their competence, with other doctors knowing and remaining silent.”
10. What was your most embarrassing professional moment?
“The time I got renal colic in my clinic. There are all sorts of memories, from my patient helping me on to the couch, to being wheeled off past my waiting patients.”
11. Is doctors’ training being dumbed down?
“No. For the last 150 years it has been regularly claimed that doctors are not what they used to be. There’s nothing new in this world.”
12. What achievement are you most proud of?
“Leading the development of the Nottingham Vet School.”
Finish this sentence: The merger with PMETB is going to be…
…of benefit to the profession and the public by making the regulation of all stages of medical education by a single organisation a reality.
