Interim Measures Tribunals, Physician Assistants, Anaesthesia Assistants
Interim Measures Tribunals
The General Medical Council (GMC) convenes Interim Measures Tribunals (IMTs) where the fitness to practise of a Registered Physician Assistant (PA) or Registered Anaesthesia Assistant (AA) may be deemed impaired. The interim orders process is similar to that faced by Registered Medical Practitioners (doctors), who are subject to proceedings before the Interim Orders Tribunal (IOT).
A Physician Assistant or Anaesthesia Assistant will need to properly prepare for the IMT by providing a carefully compiled bundle of evidence (to be submitted in advance), accompanied by oral submissions at the hearing. The tribunal usually consists of a legally qualified chair, a lay person, and a clinician from the same discipline. The GMC uses barristers to present the case against the AA or PA. Doctors Defence Service provides advisory and representation services to Physician Assistants and Anaesthesia Assistants.
The regulations that govern the Interim Measures Tribunals are contained in the xxxx. An interim measures tribunal can impose a measure for up to 18 months, after which the higher supervisory courts must decide whether to extend it. Interim measures are reconsidered every six months at review hearings.
The IMTs can impose an interim measure of suspension, an order of conditions, or no order. See the Interim Measures Conditions Bank for AAs and PAs.
Suspension can cause great financial and other hardships because it prevents the AA or PA from being able to work in their chosen profession.
PAs and AAs often feel scapegoated in a wider problematic healthcare environment, and they can feel unsupported and blamed in situations where they have had little support and guidance. PAs and AAs have received unfair press, and they might need to explain their day-to-day working environment to the tribunal, to show how they lacked support.
An Interim Measures Tribunal hearing starts with introductions, and the registrant is asked to provide their name and registration number. Preliminary matters are then considered, before the GMC’s legal representative presents a summary of the case and invites the tribunal to impose an interim measure of either conditions or suspension. The tribunal asks questions and then hears from the registrant’s representative. Submissions are made on facts, policy, law, the Conditions Bank, hardship, character, among other things. The representative will invite the tribunal to impose a particular order or no order. The tribunal then asks questions of the representative before retiring to consider the submissions and whether an interim measures order is necessary. Interim Measures Tribunal hearings are held via videoconference. The interim measures hearing is usually held in private. It usually lasts from 20 minutes to over an hour in the first part of the hearing. The registrant will be called back to receive the decision approximately an hour after the first part concludes.
The tribunal asks the parties to leave, then discusses the case. A PA or AA registrant is not entitled to any minutes of such a meeting. However, the tribunal must draft reasons for its decision and give a copy of them to the PA or AA facing the proceedings when they are called back to receive the announcement of the tribunal’s decision. Any decision must be proportional to the seriousness of the allegations, the weight of the material before them, and the risk to public confidence, public protection, and the public interest, as well as the registrant’s interests.
A PA or AA who receives an order of conditions must comply with it absolutely, as they might otherwise be suspended for alleged professional misconduct. The onus is on the registrant, not the employer, albeit employers are asked to assist the GMC in monitoring the PA or AA in the workplace.
A PA or AA who is unhappy about the outcome of an interim measures tribunal can seek to appeal. They must lodge their application within 28 days, and this will be considered by a legally qualified chair. If they give permission, an appeal hearing will be held. This is an organisational appeal rather than an appeal to the higher courts.
That is a summary of the interim measures tribunal process. We can advise physician assistants and anaesthesia assistants on preparation for such a hearing and provide advocacy at the hearing.
For more information about the legal and other support services we provide to anaesthesia assistants and physician assistants, and for assistance with an interim measures tribunal hearing, call us on 0800 10 88 739.