11.06.12
MPTS launched to handle fitness to practise cases
The General Medical Council (GMC) has launched a new service for doctors as part of reform to practise hearings.
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) is a new impartial adjudication function that operates separately from the GMC’s complaint handling, investigation and case presentation.
MPTS will be accountable to Parliament and will take over all fitness to practise cases relating to registered doctors and make decisions on any action needed. The body will be able to remove or suspend a doctor, or place restrictions on their practise to protect patients.
Niall Dickson, chief executive of the GMC said: “The launch of the MPTS is the biggest change to doctors’ fitness to practise hearings for more than 150 years.
“It represents a key part of our reforms and delivers a clear separation between investigations and the decisions made about a doctor’s fitness to practise.
“Although panels already make their decisions independently, it is important that their autonomy is clear and that the oversight of their work is quite separate from our investigatory activity. We hope that the MPTS will strengthen professional and public confidence that our hearings are impartial, fair and transparent – the fact that the service is led by a judicial figure who has a direct line to Parliament should provide that assurance.”
His Honour David Pearl will lead the service as chair. He said: “Establishing the MPTS assures those who come into our processes that we are independent of investigations into doctors’ fitness to practise, that the appointment of panellists for hearings is separate and that all decisions are made completely impartially.
“One of my earliest priorities is to make improvements to the way that panellists are trained and performance managed through regular appraisal and quality assurance, which will bolster the quality of decision making.”
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