General Medical Council

HC Deb 29 February 2000 vol 345 cc218-9W

20. Dr. Tony Wright

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the role of the General Medical Council. [110872]

Mr. Denham

The General Medical Council is an independent statutory body set up by the Medical Act 1983.

The Government are determined that all the bodies involved in the regulation of the healthcare professions should be modernised and we have been working towards this aim with the professions over the past year.

It is vital that the GMC maintains public confidence that it will put patients' interest in the forefront of all they do—especially when dealing with doctors who have not met the standard expected of the profession.