Healthcare World’s Editor-in-Chief Sarah Cartledge speaks to Helen Featherstone, General Manager of GMC Services International about the importance of a comprehensive regulatory framework
Over the past 160 years, the UK’s General Medical Council (GMC) has become one of the leading professional healthcare regulators in the world. From setting the standards by which all medical doctors need to abide by to registration, revalidation, the setting of medical education and standards, medical school accreditation and having a robust complaints handling process, the GMC works through every phase of a doctor’s professional life. The GMC Services International (GMCSI) has been established to support the core services provided by the GMC globally, delivering advisory services through a non-UK-centric model.
At the centre of every healthcare system is a secure regulatory framework, surrounded by implementation processes and structures. The GMCSI offers a people-centred approach, with patient safety, workforce supply, governance and quality as standard. The knowledge base behind the GMCSI allows for flexibility through experience, offering tailored services to improve the landscape for all healthcare professionals and thereby improving patient safety.
Helen Featherstone, General Manager of GMCSI, works closely with International Ministries of Health and Regulators to identify opportunities for more effective regulatory systems. “Ethical guidance is the core of regulation,” she says. “We focus on prevention rather than punishment, and on culture, values, teamwork and leadership as well as process and standards.”
This approach allows the cultivation of a patient-focused culture within a healthcare system to improve safety, access, quality and consistency across highly diverse workforces in order to ‘professionalise the professionals.’ In delivering programmes GMCSI is able to access the GMC’s pool of 1,300 staff and a further 1,000 associates.
Empowering healthcare professionals
By creating supportive environments and nurturing healthcare workers through their professional journey, and by using the subject matter expertise of the GMC, GMCSI is able to provide structures to maintain and improve standards. These structures form an important component of the overall healthcare system and places healthcare practitioner regulation at the core.
“Medical doctor registrations ensure all practicing professionals in the region are suitably qualified, and regulators can maintain contact with registered doctors through the revalidation process which take place every 5 years,” she says. Medical doctor registration and revalidation are two important elements of successful regulation. Other elements include the regulation of medical education and the handling of complaints made against medical doctors, called Fitness to Practice (FTP). Efficient data tracking of the medical doctors’ journeys during their careers feeds into the overall healthcare system, enabling input into workforce planning as well as the calculation of medical school placements, to mention a few examples.
Regulating professionals
GMCSI has offered advice and guidance on setting up robust registration and licensing processes to a number of countries which promoted revalidation as standard to encourage continuous career development for their workforce.
One example looked specifically at reforming an overly bureaucratic process that was unable to deliver the number of licensed doctors needed. The process delayed newly qualified medics from registering and applicants were moving on to other regions before their registration had gone through. The system review led to the implementation of a fast-track system for applicants with certification from other reputable healthcare systems regulators, under the guidance of the GMC. The system took advice on considering appropriate thresholds from other countries and enabled the establishment of an effective process with a balance between competitiveness and risk. In order to ensure efficiency, a programme to reduce the wait time for primary source documentation verification for the regulation of new healthcare professionals was produced.
Consulting work has also been done in the setting of medical education standards and medical school assessments to ensure these standards are being adhered to. “It is important for regulators to work with medical schools to make sure they are delivering against all the required standards,” states Helen, highlighting the importance of consistent medical education standards across the country to ensure standardised medical education.
In order to deliver a completely comprehensive system, the regulatory framework must go even further.
“Fitness to practice is key, but actually we find the complaints process is of huge importance. It is important for the public to raise concerns over medical treatment received and to have a robust system in place to address these concerns. Serious complaints can then be investigated and action taken if deemed necessary. This is very important for overall patient safety.
GMCSI recently supported a new regulator of healthcare professionals, specifically focused on the processes behind complaints handling. The regulator focused on setting up fitness to practice rules and was given guidance on legislative requirements, as well as drafting decision outcomes, information handling, detailed triage decision making policy, sanctions and a fitness to practice publications policy.
GMCSI is able to draw on a wealth of experience from the GMC and provides knowledge and guidance for every aspect of the regulatory framework with access to consultants in standards, registration, revalidation, fitness to practice, medical education and director-level executive functions. Regulatory system reviews are crucial, and up to date practices provide the foundations for a stable healthcare landscape. Taking care of this environment provides the best service possible to patients, with patient safety as the core focus at all times.
These regulatory frameworks set the standards which all medical doctors need to adhere to, thereby promoting trustworthiness and giving patients confidence in the care they receive.