DOCTORS have voiced their support for the UK Government’s new five-year re-licensing system.
The new one, which is intended to keep a check on medical competence, will be a good thing, according to Dr Stephen Wray of the Queen’s Road Medical Practice.
‘Anything which encourages and ensures standards of practice and safety for the public is super,’ he said. Dr Wray said the system would apply to Guernsey doctors and they were already prepared for it.
‘It will definitely happen here if it does in the UK and we have been geared up and waiting for it for ages,’ he said. He added that Guernsey doctors already undergo yearly appraisals conducted by other doctors and involving patient feedback.
‘I think the vast majority of doctors I know have been positive about it.’
Dr Mark Downing of the Rohais Health Centre was one of them.
‘The system is a good idea because it will ensure doctors are up to date and doing right by their patients,’ he said.
Dr Downing said the new system would continue to incorporate patient feedback.
‘It is good that patients are involved. They get a real feel for what a doctor is like,’ he said.
The campaign of support for a new system gathered momentum after the Harold Shipman inquiry. The British doctor was convicted of murdering 15 of his patients and is believed to have killed at least 215.
But Dr Downing said the new system was to test competence, not just to catch somebody like Shipman, and even patient feedback might not be able to achieve that.
‘Dr Shipman was extremely popular.
‘His patients thought he was wonderful, so it is a worry that unless the new system is robust enough, a person like him could still slip through the net,’ he said.
UK chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson said details of the system would be drawn up and piloted over the next 18 months.
Article posted on 26th July, 2008 - 9.29am
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