THE General Medical Council (GMC) has published The state of medical education and practice in the UK: 2017, which identifies some of the challenges facing the medical profession.
Commenting on its release, MDDUS chief executive Chris Kenny said: "We welcome this report and the steps the GMC has taken to improve efficiency and decision making in the fitness to practise process. We will continue to work with them to help ease the strain on doctors and make the complaints and regulatory processes less stressful for members and more transparent for patients."
MDDUS Joint head of medical division Dr Anthea Martin added: “Complaints against doctors may have plateaued, but they are still 10 per cent above the 2011 level.
"Better communication between GMC and employers has resulted in better understanding of issues and the introduction of provisional enquiries at the triage stage of fitness to practise has led to fewer full investigations. This can only be good news for doctors.
"Early local action is key to defuse complaints and we believe that local resolution should be speedy, fair and consistent. In our experience, patient complaints that are dealt with quickly and efficiently between the patient and the doctor are far more likely to be resolved."
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