The Medical Defence Union, which assists hundreds of doctors each year with GMC fitness to practice investigations, says the GMC’s proposed guidance on the use of the civil standard of proof would turn part of the decisionmaking process on its head.
Dr Hugh Stewart, head of case decisions at the MDU said: “It can’t be possible to take into account whether someone is likely to be erased or not at a time when the allegations before the GMC have not even been proven.
“We cannot understand how anyone can think this is right or fair. It seems nonsensical and there are similarities with the trial in Alice in Wonderland when the Queen of Hearts proclaimed: ‘No, no! Sentence first – verdict afterwards’,” he added.
“Making the decision as to the seriousness of the outcome before the facts have been tested would seem to be prejudging the final outcome.”
