GMC Warnings
Legal Advice for Doctors on GMC Warnings
What is a GMC Warning?
A warning is a sanction that the General Medical Council (GMC) and Medical Practitioners Tribunals (MPTS) can impose. The GMC and MPT may impose a Warning on a registered doctor in prescribed circumstances.
Who Imposes a Warning?
Two case examiners at the Investigation Rule 7 stage can impose a warning. The doctor can appeal the proposal to the GMC Investigations Committee.
Also, at a fitness to practise hearing, a Medical Practitioners Tribunal (MPT) can impose a Warning where a doctor’s fitness to practise is found to be no longer impaired but where the seriousness of the departure from Good Medical Practice (GMP) – the code of conduct for doctors – needs to be marked.
For how long will the Warning be live?
A warning will sit on a doctor’s registration for two years (previously five years) and be visible to those who check the doctor’s registration status. After that time, the Warning will no longer be visible.
Does the GMC Keep a Long-Term Record of a Warning?
The GMC keeps a permanent record and will disclose the warning history to any employer who formally requests the doctor’s full history. The history of warnings may also be referred to in fitness to practise proceedings, should a doctor face such a hearing in the future.
What is the status of a Warning?
A warning is a less formal ‘sanction’ than those that can be imposed at a fitness to practise hearing. However, it can still significantly affect a doctor’s reputation and ability to work. In some instances, it might lead to workplace supervision for a period and affect shortlisting for jobs.
Is a GMC Warning Stigmatising?
Most doctors believe a warning has a stigmatising effect that will compromise their reputation or limit their chances of promotion. Understandably, most doctors want to avoid a warning, if at all possible. Fellow practitioners on occasions shun doctors who have received a warning.
Legal Advice and Legal Representation
Doctors Defence Service can advise doctors about how they might persuade the GMC not to impose a warning in the doctor’s case. The process is not straightforward.
Which Panels Can Impose a Warning?
The Case Examiners and, in some instances, an Investigating Committee (at the Investigative Stage) and the Fitness to Practise panel (at the FTP tribunal Stage) may issue a Warning to a doctor where the conduct of the doctor (being scrutinised by the GMC) has fallen just short of a finding of impaired fitness to practise, generally speaking.
What Guidance is there on GMC Warnings?
See the GMC/MPT guidance to decision-makers GMC Warnings for more information on when a tribunal might impose a warning.
Where a doctor considers that their case does not warrant a Warning, they can make oral submissions, present evidence, and make legal arguments. The GMC has produced a checklist of criteria against which panels or decision-makers assess and balance the doctor’s interests and the interests of public policy when considering whether to impose a warning.
See the GMC Warning Guidance and the GMC Investigation Stage Warnings page (External Links).] Each case will of course turn on its own facts. See also our further article: How to Avoid a GMC Warning.
Publication of Determinations – Investigating Committee
The Investigating Committee considers appeals from GMC proposed Warning decisions. The Investigating Committee’s decision to impose a warning appears to be visible online for 12 months via the decision notice. The following statistics are a useful aid to understanding.
Statistics from the GMC
Source: Fitness to practise statistics 2018
Publication on Doctor’s GMC Registration Page
The GMC will also publish the Warning on the GMC website against the doctor’s registration for two years (previously five years), after which it will be taken down.
The history will still be kept on record and available to employers on request. See recent GMC Warnings: A List of GMC Warnings Given to Doctors.
The GMC will also look for trends if new allegations are made of a similar type to those that led to the past Warning.
Read the Latest Investigating Committee Decisions on Warnings
The GMC publishes Investigating Committee decisions where a warning has been imposed. The minutes of the meeting disclose why the committee felt it appropriate to impose a warning. The minutes are useful as a guide. You can find the GMC page here: Warning Decisions of the GMC Investigating Committee.
Case Law on GMC/MPT Warnings
Is there case law on GMC Warnings?
The High Court has declared that where a (MPT) fitness to practise tribunal (as opposed to the GMC Investigatory Stage) determines that there are exceptional circumstances not to find a doctor’s fitness to practise impaired in cases of proven dishonesty, there is a need to impose a warning in most cases to uphold the standards of the profession and maintain confidence in the medical profession: Professional Standards Authority for Health And Social Care v The General Medical Council & Anor [2019] EWHC 1638 (Admin) (28 June 2019)
This case law suggests a minimum approach to dishonest conduct, but exceptional cases may allow an argument that a Warning is not necessary.
Legal Advice about GMC Warnings
If you are a doctor who is concerned about being given a GMC Warning and you would like to seek legal advice and assistance on the subject, telephone Doctors Defence Service (DDS) in confidence on: 0800 10 88 739
View our other pages on: GMC Law and Legal Representation
Visit our: Specialist DDS Lawyers’ Profiles
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