How can the General Medical Council help you?

Hello Student Room members,

I’m Tanita from the General Medical Council and, along with a few of my colleagues from our student support team, I’m here to try to answer your questions about becoming a doctor in the UK. I’d also love to hear what you’d like from us. We’d really value your input and feedback on some of the work we’re doing to work out how to better support you on your journey to becoming doctors.

So how is the GMC involved in medical education? The GMC sets education standards for your medical schools as well as guidance for you as medical students and then as doctors. Just to be clear, we’re not involved with disciplinary issues for students or to monitor how you use social media (i.e. on here!).

We are the independent regulator for doctors so we have a duty to protect patients, which includes looking into concerns raised about doctors. This is an important part of our role but it is not why we are on TSR. But, if you do have concerns about something you’ve seen while on placement or in training, we will support you in any way we can.

We would like to ask for your views on how we can support you in your studies – and in your future careers. We will occasionally ask if you want to take part in polls and surveys or invite you to events we’re involved with. For example we’ve recently hosted a series of events around the country to discuss issues of medical professionalism. Some of the most interesting blogs we’ve received after these events have come from medical students and junior doctors so we’d love to hear other ideas for blogs too.

We’re also keen to hear from you on some of the work we’re already doing. For example, in May we will be looking for your feedback on our new guidance for students on professional values for the first time.

For now, do get in touch if you have any questions about our work otherwise we look forward to chatting in the near future.

Cheers,
Tanita

Reply 1

EYDavis

4

And all was silent as the registered doctors tiptoed away from The Student Room...

Reply 2

melanin101

11

What is the least worst thing that that a medicine offer holder can have/do that'll result in fitness to practice concerns arising? What's the least worst thing that'll result in a medicine offer being revoked?

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 3

MonteCristo

14

The GMC exists to protect the public (as it should) so why is it funded with subscriptions imposed on doctors? A typical doctor pays £20,000 to the GMC over the course of his/her career but it's really not clear what they are paying for. Perhaps the GMC could support future doctors by lobbying for funding from the Treasury?

Reply 4

General Medical Council

OP

4

Original post by EYDavis

And all was silent as the registered doctors tiptoed away from The Student Room...

Hi @EYDavis,

I really hope not! The reason we’re here is to listen to you and better understand what support or advice you might need from us – if any. At the same time, we also want to ask for your input and occasionally, as mentioned in the intro message, involve you in polls and surveys.

Day-to-day, the GMC does quite a lot more than running the register and handling complaints about doctors – we also work hard to develop guidance and tools to help support doctors in their roles and to set the standards for medical education and training.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 5

General Medical Council

OP

4

Original post by MonteCristo

The GMC exists to protect the public (as it should) so why is it funded with subscriptions imposed on doctors? A typical doctor pays £20,000 to the GMC over the course of his/her career but it's really not clear what they are paying for. Perhaps the GMC could support future doctors by lobbying for funding from the Treasury?

Hi @MonteCristo,

Thanks for getting in touch. Just yesterday, we published some info to show how the annual fee paid by doctors is used – you can see it online here. When it comes to funding, a part of being an independent organisation means we are independent from government funding.

Hope that makes things a bit more clear but let me know if I can help with anything else.

Reply 6

General Medical Council

OP

4

Original post by melanin101

What is the least worst thing that that a medicine offer holder can have/do that'll result in fitness to practice concerns arising? What's the least worst thing that'll result in a medicine offer being revoked?

Hi @melanin101,

Good and hard question! Unfortunately, it’s not one that I can easily answer as that would be up to individual medical schools. We (the GMC) are more involved with medical students when they come to apply for provisional registration towards the end of their degrees.

The Medical Schools Council says these issues are always looked at on a case-by-case basis by the medical school. Most medical schools do a criminal records check and go through the vetting and barring scheme because students will be seeing patients who are classed as vulnerable people. They follow the general principle in this document from the Medical Schools Council.

It’s best to tell the medical school that has offered a place about any concerns upfront. If it comes up in a check, a student’s honesty would be called into question – and that would be a big issue in itself.

As it happens, later this year we’ll be publishing the results of a year-long programme focusing on student professional values. This, in fact, is one of the main things we’d like your help in getting right in the next few months.

I hope this information is useful? Let me know if you need any more info and I’ll try to help.

How can the General Medical Council help you?

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