More than half of doctors lack confidence in GMC – majority question PA regulation

GMC

By Daniel Pye

More than half (54%) of doctors are not confident in the way the General Medical Council regulates the profession, its latest survey has found.

Doctors in training are the most likely to lack confidence (67%).

Nearly four-fifths (77%) of doctors are not confident in the way it regulates physician assistants and physician assistants in anaesthesia, previously known as physician and anaesthesia associates (PAs and AAs). The research discovered 87% of those in training reported they were not confident in the way the GMC regulates associates.

GP Dr Steve Taylor, from the Doctors’ Association, said it was “not at all surprising that confidence in the GMC has been falling” as doctors had been treated as an “afterthought” by the regulator they pay for.

The GMC’s research was conducted by Shift Insight, an independent consultancy, and monitors how the regulator is seen to be performing its role, the impact of its work and what it could improve.