The Professional Standards Authority says that the General Medical Council met all of the standards of good regulation in 2024.
The General Medical Council (GMC) has continued to meet all 18 standards of good regulation following an independent performance review by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA). The review considered how the medical regulator has performed against standards for areas including guidance, education, registration, and fitness to practise.
The GMC met all the standards in this year’s more intensive periodic review. This included meeting the PSA’s new approach for assessing performance on equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) where the report highlights the GMC’s strong performance against all four outcomes in this area.
“We are pleased with the PSA’s findings and their recognition of our commitment to be an effective, relevant, and compassionate regulator,” said GMC chief executive Charlie Massey.
This year’s review covered the period 1 October 2023 to 30 September 2024. It commended the GMC for its continued progress on improving the timeliness of fitness to practise cases, and work towards targets to eliminate disproportionate fitness to practise referrals from employers by 2026 and differential attainment in medical education by 2031.
In the report, the PSA also welcomed the increased focus on patient-centred care and fair workplace cultures in the regulator’s updated core guidance which came into effect in January last year.
The PSA for Health and Social Care oversees statutory bodies like the GMC which regulate health and social care professionals in the UK. It assesses performance, conducts audits, scrutinises decisions, and reports to Parliament. It also sets standards for organisations holding voluntary registers for health and social care occupations and accredits those that meet them.
Performance reviews are carried out on a three-year cycle. A more intensive ‘periodic review’ is carried out for one of those years, as it was this year.
