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Showing papers by "General Medical Council published in 2019"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Patient and public involvement (PPI) continues to develop as a central policy agenda in health care and the patient voice is seen as relevant, informative and can drive service improvement.
Abstract: Background Patient and public involvement (PPI) continues to develop as a central policy agenda in health care. The patient voice is seen as relevant, informative and can drive service improvement. However, critical exploration of PPI's role within monitoring and informing medical performance processes remains limited. Objective To explore and evaluate the contribution of PPI in medical performance processes to understand its extent, purpose and process. Search strategy The electronic databases PubMed, PsycINFO and Google Scholar were systematically searched for studies published between 2004 and 2018. Inclusion criteria Studies involving doctors and patients and all forms of patient input (eg, patient feedback) associated with medical performance were included. Data extraction and synthesis Using an inductive approach to analysis and synthesis, a coding framework was developed which was structured around three key themes: issues that shape PPI in medical performance processes; mechanisms for PPI; and the potential impacts of PPI on medical performance processes. Main results From 4772 studies, 48 articles (from 10 countries) met the inclusion criteria. Findings suggest that the extent of PPI in medical performance processes globally is highly variable and is primarily achieved through providing patient feedback or complaints. The emerging evidence suggests that PPI can encourage improvements in the quality of patient care, enable professional development and promote professionalism. Discussion and conclusions Developing more innovative methods of PPI beyond patient feedback and complaints may help revolutionize the practice of PPI into a collaborative partnership, facilitating the development of proactive relationships between the medical profession, patients and the public.

28 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Personal characteristics or first qualification place were unrelated to the seriousness of regulatory outcomes in the UK, but engagement (attendance and legal representation), allegation type, and referral source were importantly associated to outcomes.
Abstract: Outcomes of processes questioning a physician’s ability to practise —e.g. disciplinary or regulatory— may strongly impact their career and provided care. However, it is unclear what factors relate systematically to such outcomes. In this cross-sectional study, we investigate this via multivariate, step-wise, statistical modelling of all 1049 physicians referred for regulatory adjudication at the UK medical tribunal, from June 2012 to May 2017, within a population of 310,659. In order of increasing seriousness, outcomes were: no impairment (of ability to practise), impairment, suspension (of right to practise), or erasure (its loss). This gave adjusted odds ratios (OR) for: age, race, sex, whether physicians first qualified domestically or internationally, area of practice (e.g. GP, specialist), source of initial referral, allegation type, whether physicians attended their outcome hearing, and whether they were legally represented for it. There was no systematic association between the seriousness of outcomes and the age, race, sex, domestic/international qualification, or the area of practice of physicians (ORs p≥0.05), except for specialists who tended to receive outcomes milder than suspension or erasure. Crucially, an apparent relationship of outcomes to age (Kruskal-Wallis, p=0.009) or domestic/international qualification (χ2,p=0.014) disappeared once controlling for hearing attendance (ORs p≥0.05). Both non-attendance and lack of legal representation were consistently related to more serious outcomes (ORs [95% confidence intervals], 5.28 [3.89, 7.18] and 1.87 [1.34, 2.60], respectively, p<0.001). All else equal, personal characteristics or first qualification place were unrelated to the seriousness of regulatory outcomes in the UK. Instead, engagement (attendance and legal representation), allegation type, and referral source were importantly associated to outcomes. All this may generalize to other countries and professions.

7 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
01 Apr 2019
TL;DR: Are clinicians using WhatsApp cautiously?
Abstract: With the birth of social networking sites, use of blog and Twitter accounts during conferences, and the introduction of iPads in medical schools and hospitals across the UK, it is no wonder that the use of WhatsApp to communicate between clinicians has been enthusiastically embraced by some. With currently over 1.5 billion monthly active users, it acts as a bleep, computer, camera, audio recorder, data storage device and telephone.1 2 A recent study also concluded that half a million National Health Service staff are using messaging applications, such as WhatsApp.3 With a working wireless or data connection, users can send free messages to each other via end-to-end encryption.4 A message is forwarded through a WhatsApp server to the recipient. When the recipient has internet connection, the message is received on their device and deleted from the server. If the message is not delivered within 1 month, it is automatically deleted from the server. End-to-end encryption was introduced in April 2016 to protect messages from ‘hackers’ as they are delivered. This feature ensures messages can only be unlocked by the recipient, so only they can read the message. Of 28 investigations closed by the General Medical Council (GMC) between January 2015 and June 2017, 3 were related to doctors’ use of WhatsApp.5 Good Medical Practice states that ‘you should remember when using social media that communications intended for friends or family may become more widely available’.6 So are clinicians using WhatsApp cautiously? Who is invigilating its use? Or have we stepped into a grey area where the traditional bleep system is being replaced by a new era of communication. Despite the widespread …

5 citations


DOI
01 Jun 2019
TL;DR: This examination is focused on highlighting methods employed by paediatric dentists to prevent possible actions of suing for compensation and the contractual and extra-contractual liability of paediatric Dentists in Italy.
Abstract: AIM This study offers an overview regarding news and main themes which have been introduced by Law n. 24/2017 (the so called "Gelli-Bianco" law) in Italy. The normative content deals with the features of civil liability for healthcare professionals. More specifically, this article is referred to the contractual and extra-contractual liability of paediatric dentists. Dentists often provide services combining healthcare and dental procedures as well as aesthetic activities. Thanks to the case law and doctrine tradition, the distinction between contracts of employment and contracts of work is clearly stated. This examination is focused on highlighting methods employed by paediatric dentists to prevent possible actions of suing for compensation.

4 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The high rates of early, rather than late-stage diagnoses at this clinic are dramatically different than national rates, which may be because the data is analyzed from a prevention service seeing mainly patients with private insurance as opposed to national data, which consists primarily of patients seen in oncologic services with national insurance.
Abstract: Describe the characteristics of patients seen at the Cancer Prevention and Control Service at a Peruvian private cancer clinic in 2014. This retrospective clinical study analyzed the prevalence of 10 cancers and characteristics of patients seen at a private cancer center located in Lima, Peru. The study sample included 7680 adults, and data were collected from de-identified medical records. The average age of the patients was 44.71 years and 98,82% of them had private insurance. The majority of patients were women (67.69%). Our gross incidence rate of cancer was 35.16 per 100,000 in the Cancer Prevention and Control Service in 2014. Only 0.35% had cancer, and most of those diagnosed with cancer (77.78%) were diagnosed in the early stages, stages I and II. The two most common cancers observed were breast and thyroid cancer. The high rates of early, rather than late-stage diagnoses at this clinic are dramatically different than national rates. This difference may be because we are analyzing data from a prevention service seeing mainly patients with private insurance as opposed to national data, which consists primarily of patients seen in oncologic services with national insurance.

2 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the original publication of this article several figures and tables were incorrectly displayed and the correct overview of the tables and figures are published.
Abstract: In the original publication of this article [1] several figures and tables were incorrectly displayed. In this correction article the correct overview of the tables and figures are published. The original article has been updated. The publisher apologizes to the readers & authors for the inconvenience.