Fitness To Practise Concerns At Medical School May Affect Future Registration - MDU Warns, UK

Main Category: Medical Students / Training
Article Date: 12 Sep 2007 - 14:00 PDT

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The Medical Defence Union (MDU) warned medical students that adverse findings about their behaviour at medical school might prevent them from registering as a doctor with the GMC. The MDU, the UK's largest medical defence organisation, reminded student members to contact its advisory helpline as soon as they become aware of an investigation into their fitness to practise.

The MDU is responding to the publication of the GMC's new guidance for students and for medical schools, Medical students: professional behaviour and fitness to practise*, developed with the Medical Schools Council, which sets out the professional behaviour expected of medical students and the key elements in medical student fitness to practise arrangements. Medical students are told, among other things, they should:

-- not exceed their limitations and be prepared to ask for help
-- not mislead anyone by misrepresenting their position or abilities
-- make sure they are supervised appropriately for any clinical task
-- make sure that patients have consented to a student being involved in their care.

Dr Hugh Stewart, MDU medico-legal adviser said: "The MDU already receives an increasing number of calls for help from student members. So far this year we've opened twice as many student files as we did 10 years ago. Many students just want medico-legal information or advice, but there are also a small number of students whose fitness to practise is investigated by their medical school following interactions with patients, or concerns about their health. For example, there have been cases where students have been accused of acting outside their competence, or even treating patients without proper consent because the patient did not know they were a student.

"We encourage all medical students members to read the new guidance as it sets out the standards against which they may be judged and if in doubt, to contact us. Medical students who are MDU members can also seek our assistance with their medical schools' student FTP procedures."

Changes to the law have given the GMC new powers to consider a graduate's fitness to practise before he or she can provisionally register as a doctor and it makes clear there is no longer an automatic link between graduation and provisional registration.

Dr Stewart added: "Of course, it is right that if a medical student is a proven danger to patients, and remediation is not possible, he or she should be prevented from registering as a doctor. But with a student's future career at stake, fitness to practise procedures must be fair and transparent; sanctions must be fair and proportionate, and there should be consistency across the medical schools. We pointed this out in our responses to the GMC's consultations on the guidance and hope it helps medical schools achieve this. Wherever possible students should receive increased support or remedial training, rather than face formal fitness to practise procedures."

The first part of the new guidance addresses the professional behaviour expected of medical students. It is divided into seven sections: good clinical care; maintaining good medical practice; teaching and training, appraising and assessing; relationships with patients; working with colleagues; probity; and health. Each section sets out the standards required to demonstrate fitness to practise. For example, the criteria for maintaining good medical practice includes the following: "attend compulsory teaching sessions or make other arrangements with the medical school; complete and submit coursework on time; and make sure they can be contacted and always respond to messages."

The purpose of the second part of the guidance is "to define fitness to practise, the threshold of acceptable behaviour; and the scope of formal procedures of medical schools" and the available sanctions. The GMC says that health problems are outside the scope of its guidance but suggests that medical schools "may wish to use their fitness to practise procedures to consider serious health problems. This is especially the case when the problems have implications for the safety of patients or colleagues, even when there are currently no complaints about the student's behaviour."

* Medical students: professional behaviour and fitness to practise, Guidance from the GMC and Medical Schools Council, September 2007. Copies available from the GMC.

The MDU is a mutual, not for profit, organisation owned by our members who include over 50 per cent of the UK's hospital doctors and GPs. Established in 1885, we were the world's first medical defence organisation. We defend the professional reputations of our members when their clinical performance is called into question. Our benefits of membership include indemnity for claims of clinical negligence and a wide range of medico-legal advisory services.

http://www.the-MDU.com

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