All doctors operating in the United Kingdom – whether fully qualified or training – are required to register with the General Medical Council (GMC). If a patient makes a complaint against a doctor for not fulfilling his/her duties properly, the GMC will exercise its regulatory function and determine whether to refer the particular doctor to a Fitness to Practise Panel hearing with the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS). That is where the doctor needs to consult a qualified and experienced GMC complaint investigation lawyer on the market. This post outlines the reasons why you need to hire an experienced GMC complaint investigation lawyer in the United Kingdom.
Having your fitness to practise investigated could be an extremely stressful and a difficult period for you. That is where the service of a qualified and experienced GMC lawyer comes in handy. A professional GMC lawyer will have experience in defending many doctors in all types of professional disciplinary proceedings. Hence, he or she will be able to guide you through each step of the process. You will have peace of mind as a result.
If an allegation is made against you, the GMC will notify you before conducting the investigation. You will receive a GMC Rule 4 letter – which will outline the nature of the allegations against you. The examiners will carry out the investigation and towards the latter stages, you will receive a Rule 7 letter from the GMC. This letter will set out the evidence and allegations made against you. You will be given 28 days to prepare your response. This response is the most important, since it will be taken into account when a decision is being made against you as the outcome of the investigation. That is why you need to work with a qualified and experienced GMC lawyer in the area when formulating this response. You cannot change what you have said in the response later on. Hence, make sure that you hire the best GMC lawyer in the area to safeguard you when facing the investigation conducted by the GMC.
Make sure that you do extensive research when picking the right candidate for the job. There are dozens of GMC lawyers on the market. But all of them don’t have similar experiences in dealing with such cases. That is why you need to work with a highly specialised and experienced lawyer to fight your corner in this specialised area of law.
