---

Health and Social Care Bill

I slightly disagree with the noble Lord, Lord Walton, and I do so in fear and trepidation as a doctor who is registered with the GMC and who was registered when he was presiding over it. This demonstrates the importance of Grand Committee on a topic that is so fraught. The reality is that the livelihoods are at stake of professionals who have been high achievers and who want to achieve well throughout their careers; and something has happened and they have come crashing down, for whatever reason. I remind the Committee that we must remember that in this country people are innocent until proved guilty and that, under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, people have the right to a fair hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal. The hearing includes the totality of the case at the fact-finding stage and the sanctions stage. I have been influenced in the way that I regard this amendment by the fact that the Medical Defence Union is not happy with the wording of the Bill, and some of the reasons for that have become important for the profession. The GMC guidance on sanction could be perceived to have a built-in bias because there is no requirement in the Bill for that guidance to take a balanced view. One part of sanctions is not to strike doctors off, but to ensure and be able to enforce that such doctors are retrained in whichever area that training is needed, or that they seek the kind of support they need for their professional practice that perhaps they have not had for many years. There is a clear and compelling need for the OHPA to have published guidelines on sanctions and warnings, but I can see the arguments for the adjudicator to draw up its own guidelines, albeit with guidance from the GMC. It is the strength and power of the messages moving along that umbilical cord, as the noble Earl, Lord Howe, put it, that becomes important. I may have misinterpreted the Bill, but it appears that the GMC is able to question an inappropriately lenient decision by the OHPA in the event of a decision being taken, but I am not sure that the GMC is able to question an inappropriately harsh decision. What protection is built in for a doctor where the OHPA decision seems to those in the regulatory body to be inappropriately harsh?