Can I Run a PLAB School?
The Perils of Running a PLAB School – (GMC Law and Policy)
Many doctors who qualified overseas or who have been out of UK practice for a while might need to take the PLAB assessments. The assessments includes 18 stations in OSCEs (medical scenarios played by actors, which are assessed in real time), and a multiple-choice knowledge test. There is a number of training establishments around the world that charge students fees for courses – to prepare the students for the PLAB assessments. The training schools obviously want to teach their students what is going to be relevant, while the GMC needs to protect its intellectual property so that students cannot game the system, so as to prevent cheating.
As stated by in the case of Vardhineni v General Medical Council [2024] EWHC 3328 (Admin) (20 December 2024), if the GMC’s confidential information about PLAB2 scenarios is in public circulation the process would be undermined. The judge, Fordham J, quoted the MPT tribunal that considered the fitness to practise of the doctor.
“The Implications of Unfair Advantage
6. As the Tribunal explained, if any PLAB2 candidate were to have prior knowledge of GMC clinical scenarios, they would gain an unfair advantage. As it went on to explain, that could mean that candidates could pass PLAB2 even though they lacked the requisite knowledge or skills to practise medicine safely. This links to the statutory overarching objective of the GMC (see s.1 of the 1983 Act) which is the protection of the public through the pursuit of these objectives: to protect, promote and maintain the health, safety and well-being of the public; to promote and maintain public confidence in the medical profession; and to promote and maintain proper professional standards and conduct for members of that profession.”
In the case of Vardhineni, the doctor was struck off the register for circulating to students (that he was teaching in a PLAB school) the information relevant to the OSCE assessments that students might undergo.
The GMC had discovered that a student had left a folder at the GMC assessment centre, so leading to the discovery of content (some 408 pages) that “contained large amounts of information about PLAB2. It included detailed clinical scenarios, the same as those in GMC’s ‘station bank’.”
The learning point here, for any PLAB school, is that those doctors on the register who might teach scenarios to pass PLABs, could be at regulatory risk of facing misconduct proceedings.
Students who use such study aids could also be considered to be cheats, so exposing themselves to fitness to practise inquiries. Further, those lay people who are involved in OSCE schools could potentially face civil claims by the GMC for using copyrighted and confidential material, that must remain confidential in the public interest.
If you are a doctor who is facing GMC investigation in relation to PLABS, contact Doctors Defence Service on 0800 10 88 739.