Doctors who don't apologise to patients after a mistake may be 'struck off'

Under the plans being drawn up by the GMC, doctors who fail to apologise when they make a mistake could be struck off.

17:44 22 August 2014

Under new General Medical Council (GMC) proposed rules, doctors could be struck off if they don’t report colleagues who are not performing well or if they fail to apologise to patients and relatives after committing a mistake.

The GMC, which regulates doctors, proposed the new laws after reports confirmed that the public expects more from medical practitioners.

Niall Dickson, chief executive of the General Medical Council, said: "Doctors are among the most trusted professionals, and rightly so, and they deserve to be treated fairly.

"In the vast majority of cases one-off clinical errors do not merit any action by the GMC.

"But if we are to maintain that trust, in the small number of serious cases where doctors fail to listen to concerns and take action sooner to protect patients, they should be held to account for their actions.

"There have been occasions when we have been prevented from taking action in serious cases because the doctor has been able to show that they have subsequently improved their practice.

"We believe that doctors and patients want stronger action in these serious cases.”

The group continued: "It is also right that patients or their families are told what went wrong and if appropriate they should be given a full apology.

"We believe this should be taken into account when deciding what, if any, sanction needs to be imposed to protect future patients and uphold the reputation of the profession."