Home » Research Projects » An Analysis of Data on Registration and Fitness to Practice Cases Held by the General Medical Council in the Context of Risk-Based Approaches to Medical Regulation
A Risky Business?
How can we identify, and regulate to prevent, risks to patient safety?
While medical care has played a major part in increasing life expectancy and improving the quality of those longer lives, it is a risky business. Up to the Nineteenth Century, hospitals were major sources of killer disease and that problem has by no means disappeared today. Moreover, ‘bad doctoring’ can injure or kill patients in many other ways – some estimates put the number of health-care induced deaths in the US at over 200,000 a year, for example. But we lack systematic evidence about risk factors associated with poor medical performance. Are some groups of doctor more likely than others to present a risk to patients, and can steps be taken to minimize the risks? In an attempt to start filling this evidence gap, this study will analyse (on a strictly anonymised basis) data from the UK General Medical Council’s records of cases where a doctor’s fitness to practise is called into question. It will explore whether the data can help to identify risk factors for poor medical performance and investigate the implications of a risk-based approach to medical regulation.
What the research means to policy-makers and the wider community?
- This research will be of major interest to any organization involved in the regulation of the medical profession, as its findings could begin to identify risk factors in poor medical performance, and indicate what additional information could be valuable
- Others concerned with patient safety, including patient groups and patients themselves will also be interested in this analysis and its implications for improved patient safety.
- Scholars and researchers in the UK and other countries will benefit from this assessment of the potential for GMC fitness to practise data to help identify risk factors.
Research Methods
The research will primarily consist of GMC data on ‘fitness to practise’ cases, in combination with the registration data that the GMC holds. It may be possible to identify risk factors that predispose doctors to come to the attention of the GMC. Are they disproportionately of a certain age or at a certain stage in their career? Are the graduates of certain medical schools over represented in fitness to practise cases? The research will explore the possibility of combining GMC data with other sources, such as that for the National Clinical Assessment Service (NCAS), in identifying risk factors to patient safety. An important element of the research is to understand the potential value of the GMC data more fully by building an understanding of how fitness to practise cases are initiated and processed. It will include some stakeholder interviews, exploring the expectations, perspectives and experiences of complainants, doctors and GMC staff.
