Referral to GMC - Royal Berkshire Hospital
Dear General Medical Council,
With respect to:
Royal Berkshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
London Road
Reading
RG1 5AN
Please provide the data per year for the 5-year period up to and including 2021:
- The number of consultant medical staff referred to the GMC from this organisation with concerns relating to fitness to practice.
- How many of those referred underwent a MPTS investigation?
As this will be a figure only and will not include any personal information, there is no reason why this data should not be disclosed.
Yours faithfully,
AM
Thank you for getting in touch. Please note this is an automated email.
We’ll get back to you as soon as we can with a further acknowledgement.
You’ll usually hear from us on the next working day, but it might take a
little longer during busy periods.
In the meantime, if you want any further information about the GMC, please
visit our website.
Thank you
Information Access team
General Medical Council
Email: [GMC request email]
Dear Mr Macleod
Your information request – IR1-3379507255
Thank you for your email dated 18 March 2022.
How we will consider your request
We’re going to consider your request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000 (FOIA). The FOIA gives us 20 working days to respond, but we’ll come
back to you as soon as we can.
Who to contact
Henna Janghir will be handling your request. If you have any questions you
can call them on 0161 923 6710 or email them at
[1][email address].
Kind regards,
Charlotte Adams
Information Access Team Assistant
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street, Manchester M3 3AW
Email: [2][email address]
Website: [3]www.gmc-uk.org
Telephone: 0161 240 8125
Working hours: 8am to 2.30pm, Monday to Friday
[4][IMG]
Dear FOI,
The response is now beyond the time-scales set down by law.
Can you please provide a response without further delay.
Yours sincerely,
AM
Thank you for getting in touch. Please note this is an automated email.
We’ll get back to you as soon as we can with a further acknowledgement.
You’ll usually hear from us on the next working day, but it might take a
little longer during busy periods.
In the meantime, if you want any further information about the GMC, please
visit our website.
Thank you
Information Access team
General Medical Council
Email: [GMC request email]
Dear Mr Macleod
Your information request – IR1-3379507255
Thank you for your email dated 18 March 2022 requesting fitness to
practise information for the 5 year period up to and including 2021
concerning Royal Berkshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. I have
considered your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)
and I apologise for the delay in our response.
Please note that the information below is based on those doctors that were
on the specialist register at the time of the enquiry and whose designated
body was Royal Berkshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, or the incident
that led to the enquiry is recorded as having occurred there. This means
that the below information is based on complaints received from all
sources which includes complaints from members of the public and referrals
from the Trust or any other organisation. Where a doctor has the Trust as
their designated body, the complaint details may not necessarily relate to
events which occurred at Royal Berkshire Hospital, or that the doctor
involved was employed there at the time.
1. The number of consultant medical staff referred to the GMC from this
organisation with concerns relating to fitness to practice over the
last 5 years?
Please see the below table which shows the total number of enquiries
received for the last 5 years and the number of unique doctors. As the
table illustrates, some doctors will have had more than one complaint made
against them during this time:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────┐
│ │ Total*│
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────┤
│Total number of enquiries received │ 52│
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────┤
│Total number of unique doctors the enquiries relate to │ 47│
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────┘
Please see the below table which provides a further breakdown by year:
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Total*
Total number of enquiries received 5 10 11 10 16 52
Total number of doctors the enquiries 55
relate to in that year 5 11 12 11 16
*Please note that the totals differ as one doctor may have been the
subject of more than one enquiry in this time period. These doctors may
have had different enquiries in different years, which is why the total
differs in Tables 1 and 2.
2. How many of those referred underwent a MPTS investigation?
The MPTS (Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service) is the tribunal service
for doctors in the UK and make independent decisions about doctors’
fitness to practise, including whether to restrict or remove a doctor’s
right to practise medicine in the UK. Tribunal hearing decisions are fully
independent of GMC investigations.
Please see below a table which shows the outcome by individual doctor for
the last 5 years**:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬─────┐
│Number of Enquiries │2017│2018│2019│2020│2021│Total│
├─────────────────────────────────────────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼─────┤
│Case concluded following investigation │ 2│ 0│ 0│ 0│ 0│ 2│
├─────────────────────────────────────────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼─────┤
│Sanctions applied at hearing - Suspension│ 0│ 0│ 1│ 0│ 0│ 1│
├─────────────────────────────────────────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼────┼─────┤
│Still in progress │ 0│ 0│ 2│ 2│ 2│ 6│
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│Still in progress – investigation ongoing│ 0│ 0│ 1│ 1│ 1│ 3│
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│Still in progress – referred to hearing │ 0│ 0│ 1│ 0│ 1│ 2│
│(Interim orders)*** │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ 0│ 0│ 0│ 1│ 0│ 1│
│Still in progress – referred to hearing │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│(MPT) │ │ │ │ │ │ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴────┴─────┘
**Please note that this data is based on the year the enquiry was
received, as opposed to the year of the outcome.
***Interim orders tribunals decide if a doctor's practice should be
restricted while an investigation takes place whereas an MPT makes
decisions following a GMC investigation.
With regards to the remaining enquiries that did not progress to an
investigation, over the same 5 year period, 37 enquiries were closed at
the initial ‘triage stage’ with no further action, 5 enquiries were
subject to a provisional enquiry (PE), and 7 enquiries were referred to
the doctors’ employers.
PE’s are initial enquiries which is usually limited to gathering one or
two discrete and easily obtainable pieces of information. This then helps
to inform a decision about whether the concern raised amounts to an
allegation that a doctor’s current fitness to practise is impaired and
therefore requires a full investigation. PEs do not require the decision
maker to make findings of fact as a MPT would. Instead, the process is
about gathering and assessing information to determine whether an enquiry
can be closed or if it should be promoted to a full investigation as the
triage test is met.
Additionally, with some cases that are not investigated, we sometimes
refer to the doctor’s Responsible Officer for the matter to be considered
as part of a doctor’s ongoing appraisal and revalidation. I’ve included a
link [1]here which provides further information on our investigation
process.
Who to contact
I hope you find this information useful. If you have any concerns, or any
further questions, please contact [2][GMC request email].
Yours sincerely
Henna Janghir
Information Access Officer
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester
M3 3AW
Email: [3][email address]
Tel: 0161 923 6710
Website: [4]www.gmc-uk.org
From: FOI
Sent: 21 March 2022 14:03
To: Alan Macleod <[FOI #845494 email]>
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information request - Referral to GMC - Royal
Berkshire Hospital
Dear Mr Macleod
Your information request – IR1-3379507255
Thank you for your email dated 18 March 2022.
How we will consider your request
We’re going to consider your request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000 (FOIA). The FOIA gives us 20 working days to respond, but we’ll come
back to you as soon as we can.
Who to contact
Henna Janghir will be handling your request. If you have any questions you
can call them on 0161 923 6710 or email them at
[5][email address].
Kind regards,
Charlotte Adams
Information Access Team Assistant
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street, Manchester M3 3AW
Email: [6][email address]
Website: [7]www.gmc-uk.org
Telephone: 0161 240 8125
Working hours: 8am to 2.30pm, Monday to Friday
[8][IMG]
Dear Mr Macleod,
As per your email dated 27 April 2022, I have attached our response
originally sent to you on 26 April 2022 in a PDF format.
If you have any further queries, please let me know.
Yours sincerely
Henna Janghir
Information Access Officer
General Medical Council
3 Hardman Street
Manchester
M3 3AW
Email: [1][email address]
Tel: 0161 923 6710
Website: [2]www.gmc-uk.org
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