The General Medical Council (GMC) is to seek the views of almost 7,000 doctors to help gain a greater understanding of their perceptions of the medical regulator.

The survey, which began on 20 September, is part of a new piece of research examining whether doctors think the GMC is regulating in a fair and objective way and whether doctors from different backgrounds have different views of the GMC’s fairness and objectivity.

It is hoped that the results will help the GMC to ensure that it continues to apply its standards consistently, and makes decisions that are fair to everyone regardless of their background.

Building on last year’s ‘Being Fair’ conference, the research is being undertaken by NatCen Social Research (NatCen), an independent agency.

The doctors participating have been drawn from an anonymous sample of doctors on the register and they will be asked for their views on how fair they think the GMC is the areas of:

• The processes for getting on the register.
• The implementation of revalidation.
• Dealing with concerns about doctors through its fitness to practise procedures.

Commenting on the survey, Niall Dickson, Chief Executive of the GMC, said:

“As an organisation we are committed to listening and improving what we do. We know that we can be controversial at times and that we must do more to understand concerns about the work we do.

“A year ago we held our first ‘Fairness’ conference bringing together leaders from across healthcare. We made a number of commitments at that event including obtaining better data, which is why we are keen to hear from doctors to understand the factors that influence their perceptions of the GMC. This will help us ensure that we are regulating as fairly and objectively as we can. This feedback will also to help to make sure we apply our standards consistently and address any concerns that doctors raise through the survey.”

More infomration about equality and fairness at the GMC can be found at www.gmc-uk.org/about/equality_and_diversity.asp