§ Mr. RaynsfordTo ask the Secretary of State for Health when the procedures for determining allegations of professional misconduct against general practitioners were last subject to review.
§ Dr. MawhinneyProfessor Alan Wilson of Leeds university is chairing a full review of national health service complaints systems. We will consider the need to review the current NHS disciplinary arrangements for general practitioners in the light of Professor Wilson's recommendations on complaints.
The General Medical Council's preliminary proceed-ings committee and professional conduct committees operate disciplinary procedures under powers contained in the Medical Act 1983. Subject to that Act, the procedural rules under which these committees operate are the responsibility of the GMC, an independent statutory body, and are subject to periodic review. From time to time proposals for more substantial changes to the disciplinary machinery of the council are put forward, such as the recent GMC proposal for new performance procedures to extend its disciplinary remit beyond cases of serious professional misconduct to lesser offences of persistently poor performance. Changes in the underlying structure of the GMC's disciplinary powers would require an amendment to the Medical Act.
§ Mr. RaynsfordTo ask the Secretary of State for Health for what reasons she considers it to be appropriate 111W and in the public interest for a general practitioner who has been struck off the register by the General Medical Council to be able to continue to practice pending an appeal.
§ Dr. MawhinneyIt is for the General Medical Council's professional conduct committee to decide whether to order the immediate suspension of a doctor's registration where it has found the doctor guilty of serious professional misconduct and directed that his or her name should be erased from the register. Under the Medical Act 1983, this committee can order the immediate suspension of a doctor's registration only where it is satisfied that to do so is necessary to protect the public or is in the best interests of the doctor concerned. Unless such an order is made, the doctor can continue to practice until the erasure takes effect 28 days after the doctor is served with a notice of erasure, or a longer period if an appeal is lodged. Only where the committee orders an immediate suspension do family health services authorities have the power to remove the doctor's name from their list immediately.
The professional conduct committee decides whether to order an immediate suspension on the basis of the evidence put before it in each individual case. The General Medical Council is an independent statutory body charged under the Medical Act 1983 with responsibility for the registration of doctors and the regulation of the medical profession. It would not be appropriate for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to intervene in the way it carries out its responsibilities under the Act. Any change in the General Medical Council's powers described above would require primary legislation and would be a matter for Parliament to decide.
§ Mr. Austin-WalkerTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if she will review the procedures for suspension of general practitioners from the provision of national health service services in the light of the recent case raised with her by the hon. Member for Woolwich; on what date she became aware of the medical service committee hearing of the Greenwich and Bexley family health services authority held in July 1989; on what date she communicated the findings of that hearing to the General Medical Council; and if she will make a statement;
(2) what assessment she has made of the propriety of general practitioners continuing to practise in the NHS following findings of misconduct by a local medical service committee and by the professional conduct committee of the General Medical Council and the decision by the judical committee of the Privy Council on the merits of an appeal against such findings; and if she will make a statement.
§ Dr. Mawhinney[holding answer 18 January 1994]: The General Medical Council's professional conduct committee has the power under the Medical Act 1983, where it finds a doctor to be guilty of serious professional misconduct and directs that he or she should be struck off or suspended from the medical register, to order an immediate suspension of that doctor's registration. The exercise of this power is a matter for the professional conduct committee which may only use it where it is satisfied that it is necessary to do so for the protection of members of the public or would be in the best interests of the doctor concerned.
We are giving urgent consideration to the need for legislation to provide, in extreme cases, for a power of immediate suspension of general practitioners from 112W provision of national health service services pending the outcome of investigations into allegations of serious misconduct.
In the case to which the hon. Member refers, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State became aware of a decision of Greenwich and Bexley family health services authority on 4 July 1989 when a copy of the decision was sent to the Department in accordance with regulation 10 of the National Health Service (Service Committees and Tribunal) Regulations 1974. The practitioner appealed to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State. My right hon. Friend's decision on the appeal, together with the family health services authority decision and its service committee's recommendations, were passed on to the General Medical Council on 10 May 1991.