GMC Health Cases
The General Medical Council (GMC) will investigate a doctors health status (both physical and mental health) in a number of circumstances. A whether a doctor’s fitness to practise is impaired by reason of ill health and/or whether a doctor is suitable to be (re)registered. The GMC will ask independent experts to see a doctor so to assess the doctor’s suitability to work, with restrictions, or at all.
Details of a doctor’s health are kept confidential and any references to ill-health will be heard in private. Even where a case is being heard in public, the panel will go into private session to explore the topic.
A doctor may be asked to undergo a psychiatric assessment or drug/alcohol screen, or to see a specialist physician, in order that the doctor’s physical and mental health can be assessed, and any dependencies or vulnerabilities can be identified. Where a doctor is found to be suffering from ill-health or a drug/alcohol dependency, a treatment plan be recommended.
A doctor who refuses to undergo a health assessment and adhere to a suitable and proportionate treatment plan may be at risk of being suspended from practice (by an interim orders panel (IOP)) until the doctor complies with the recommendations of the clinicians and the requirements imposed by the GMC. The GMC interim orders panel may make it a condition of practice that the doctor remains abstinent from alcohol or drugs, or that the doctor complies with a programme of treatment or medication, if the doctor is to remain in practice. Also see our Doctors and Misuse of Alcohol page, and our Doctors and Misuse of Drugs page.
Doctors Defence Service represents doctors who are being investigated by the GMC. Our lawyers have advised and supported a large number of doctors who are/were suffering from mental ill-health, alcohol or drug dependencies, and physical health problems, where the GMC was/is involved. To discuss any matter concerning the GMC’s health assessment procedures, or the advice and support service we provide to doctors, call our team in strict confidence on: 0800 10 88 739