BAPIO and BIDA had a joint meeting with Prof Terence Stevenson, Chair and Mr Niall Dickson CEO, GMC on the 30th November.
BAPIO was represented by President Ramesh Mehta and Vice President Satheesh Mathew and BIDA by Chandra Kanneganti and Umesh Prabhu. Also present was Prof Iqbal Singh representing the BME forum.
The issue of differential attainment and unconscious bias was raised and the GMC agreed to write to all Colleges and Faculties, confirming its commitment to fair training pathways for all doctors, and asking them to provide information on the following points:
• What unconscious bias/ cultural awareness training is provided?
• The profile of examiners
There were a number of concerns raised about Responsible Officers (ROs) bullying and discriminating against BME doctors and IMGs. GMC do not performance manage them. The organisations asked the GMC to circulate data on ROs and Medical Directors referred to the GMC.
They also discussed the huge stress and pressures borne by around 2000 doctors whilst under investigation by the GMC. The GMC confirmed that there had been a substantial reduction in recent times from 245 days to 63 days, but that they were not complacent, and would like to reduce this even further. The issue of the screening process and faults detected therein a few years ago was raised, and the GMC agreed to have a team of observers again as suggested.