GMC ANTI-BLOG

  Are Doctors Really at Highest Risk for Suicide?  Dana Najjar February 05, 2020 https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/924832  Dr. joseph onwude|  Ob/Gyn & Women's Health  Dr. joseph onwude FEBRUARY 6, 2020 In the UK, 28 doctors committed suicide while undergoing General Medical Council Fitness to Practice disciplinary procedures between 2005 and 2013. The General Medical Council (GMC) commissioned and accepted an independent report from Sandra Horsfall, which was published in 2014. Fitness to practice procedures are very stressful, often lasting up to 5 years. It has been suggested that these disciplinary procedures are so badly handled that they may be an independent risk factor for doctor suicides. The General Medical Council, while accepting the report proposed resilience training for medical students. Parliament disagreed.  Parliament recognized that the problem lay with the statute that controlled the GMC. In The Medical Act 1983 as amended in 2002...

  Doctors who commit suicide while under  GMC fitness to practise investigation  Internal review  Sarndrah Horsfall, Independent Consultant   14 December 2014  Executive summary  Introduction  This report was commissioned by the GMC to review those cases where doctors have committed suicide while under the fitness to practise procedures between 2005 (when the GMC introduced electronic data systems) and 2013. The aim was to establish whether the GMC’s processes could be improved to reduce the impact on vulnerable doctors and whether there is more the GMC can do to prevent these tragedies from occurring. The report addresses lessons that can be learnt from these deaths, as well as any changes the GMC could make in the way it handles vulnerable doctors.   During the period under review there were 28 reported cases in the GMC’s records where a doctor committed suicide or suspected suicide while under their investigation procedures.  ...