The GMC will meet today to debate radical changes aimed at restoring public confidence in the profession following the conviction of serial killer Harold Shipman, inquiries into Alder Hey and Bristol hospitals and the striking off of gynaecologist Richard Neale. The measures include allowing more lay people to be involved in disciplinary hearings and the separation of its prosecution and judgment functions.
A total of 4,470 complaints were made last year, compared with about 3,000 in 1999. A GMC spokesman said the rise in complaints could be due to the body's higher profile: "Because we dealt with several big cases last year, more members of the public know about us and take grievances to us." Growing numbers of GPs are also now ready to blow the whistle on incompetent colleagues. Medical defence organisations report calls at a rate of one a week or more from doctors worried about the behaviour of partners in their practices, ranging from drink and drug problems to ill-health and failure to act in the interests of their patients. Young GPs in particular appear ready to risk the wrath of their older colleagues and their immediate future by reporting their concerns. The increase in informing on colleagues coincides with a huge rise in complaints about all doctors' behaviour to the GMC.
The trends were reported coincidentally as the council's president, Sir Donald Irvine, stepped up his campaign for a change in NHS culture, saying the public believed many doctors put their interests before those of their patients. The rise in whistleblowing was revealed by the Medical Protection Society, one of two main organisations indemnifying doctors which also offer advice to members.
Sherry Williams, its head of medical services, said: "Pre-Shipman we were getting perhaps a few calls each year, now we are receiving a few each month. Typically, the concerned caller is a young GP, new to a practice, who is complaining about older partners." She added: "The focus of the medical profession is so heavily on criticism of a small number of doctors who have stepped over the mark that all doctors have become more aware that to turn a blind eye is not on." Dr Williams said GPs could find complaining about colleagues more difficult than hospital doctors because there may be only one or two others in the practice, whereas a hospital offered distance, anonymity and a management structure to deal with problems.
The Medical Defence Union said: "The question of whistleblowing is no longer an optional extra in the way it once was." The trends were reported as the government announced an extra £30m a year for three years from April to help fund its promise that all patients would be able to see a GP within 48 hours by 2004. At present, about half of all patients have to wait longer. The health secretary, Alan Milburn, said the money could also help fund a wider range of treatments by GPs and other primary care staff. He hoped six in 10 patients would see GPs within 48 hours by March next year. Doctors' organisations said big increases, of up to 10,300 new GPs, were needed as well as extra training so they could carry out more minor operations.
