GMC doctor search now shows restrictions

The General Medical Council has updated its search facility so that restrictions on a doctor’s registration are immediately visible online, after it was heavily criticised in a report from last year’s Shipman Inquiry for not showing full information online.

The fifth report from the Shipman Inquiry, published last December, called the GMC "unhelpful to the public" for not displaying restrictions attached to doctors held on the register. Before, if a doctor had conditions attached to him/her, the search would tell users that no information was available, and users would be invited to call the GMC and specifically ask if a registration had conditions attached.

Now, if there are restrictions on a doctor following a GMC fitness to practice hearing, the minutes of the panel hearing will be displayed. Information held by the GMC about a doctor’s registration status remains in the public domain.

Sir Graeme Catto, president of the GMC, said of the developments: "The enhanced Online Doctor Serarch is an important step forward in terms of increasing the GMC’s transparency.

"It will provide patients with easier access to information they are entitled to, so they can approach their discussions over treatment and referrals fully informed. Although this has been available before, it required people to have a prior understanding of the system in order to gain access to it."

Harry Cayton, National Director for Patients and the Public, said: "The additional facility to link a doctor’s details to other information concerning their registration will be of particular value to the public."

When the fifth report from the Shipman Inquiry came out at the end of last year, the GMC told E-Health Insider that they were in the process of transcribing data from their paper-based records into the website.

Dame Janet Smith, head of the Shipman Inquiry, said of the previous system: "All information about a doctor’s registration is in the public domain and it should be made readily available."

As well as current registration status, the GMC search also displays the date of registration, address, and primary and specialist medical qualifications. The search is unable to show a doctor’s current place of work or field of practice.

The search functionality is geared to finding only the most recent version of a doctor’s records. For historical records of doctors who are no longer registered with the GMC, an application must be done by post, for which a £35 charge is made.

Future plans for the website include specific searches for NHS staff that will allow photographs and other personal information to be made available on the GMC search.

The Online Doctor Search is available at http://webcache.gmc-uk.org/ods/home.do. It is undergoing scheduled maintenance, which will last until the end of the month. The GMC is offering a phone number should the search be down.