Insights
Guides for doctors facing the GMC, the police and the NHS
Plain guides to the GMC process, police investigations, inquests, NHS procedures and the cover doctors hold, written by Saqib Khan and listed newest first.
Each guide answers a question doctors ask when a case begins, and each names its sources so that you can read them yourself. The guides fall into five groups. The GMC process covers triage, Rule 7, interim orders, the tribunal and appeal, and sits beside our page on GMC investigations and MPTS hearings. Police and criminal covers interviews under caution and what you must tell the GMC, next to our page on police interviews and criminal allegations. Employers and inquests covers MHPS, exclusion, the performers list and inquests, with our page on inquests and NHS processes. Cover and fees explains indemnity, refused assistance and fixed fees, and our page for doctors whose cover is refused or limited sets out what to do. Other professions covers the NMC, the GDC and the GPhC, alongside our page for nurses, dentists and pharmacists.
All 30 guides, newest first
Cover and fees
Locums and private practitioners: who covers you?
Locum indemnity depends on where you work and who engages you. No state scheme pays for your defence before the GMC.
Cover and fees
Choosing a barrister for your hearing
What to look for in a barrister for your MPTS hearing, and the checks to make before you instruct anyone.
The GMC process
Health cases: when the concern is your own health
How a GMC health case works, from the health assessment to undertakings, and what stays confidential.
Police and criminal
When the complainant is a colleague or employee
How a complaint from a colleague can run through your employer, the GMC and an employment tribunal at once.
The GMC process
Social media and the GMC
What the GMC's social media guidance requires of doctors, where they run into trouble online and what to do next.
Other professions
Nurses, midwives and the NMC: what a fitness to practise case involves
How NMC fitness to practise works for nurses and midwives, how its case examiners decide and what each sanction means.
The GMC process
Dishonesty allegations: why the GMC treats them so seriously and how the Ivey test works
How the Ivey test for dishonesty works, how the GMC approaches dishonesty allegations, and what helps a doctor facing one.
Cover and fees
Fixed fees in regulatory defence: how staged pricing works
How Eloquia prices a GMC defence in fixed fees by stage, with a specialist barrister included. What the fee excludes.
Employers and inquests
Prevention of future deaths reports and the doctor
When a coroner must write a prevention of future deaths report, and how a doctor named in one should respond.
The GMC process
Insight and remediation: what tribunals look for and how to evidence it
How the GMC and the MPTS define insight and remediation, and how to build evidence of both from the start.
Other professions
Physician associates regulated by the GMC: what regulation since December 2024 means
Physician associates have faced GMC fitness to practise since 13 December 2024 under their own Order. Here is how it differs.
Police and criminal
How often do police investigations into doctors end without charge?
How rarely a police investigation of a doctor ends in a charge, and what the published evidence means for you.
The GMC process
Appealing a tribunal decision: the High Court route, the 28 day limit and the grounds
Which MPTS tribunal decisions you can appeal under section 40 of the Medical Act 1983. How the 28 day limit runs.
Other professions
Pharmacists and the GPhC: threshold criteria, committees and your options
How GPhC fitness to practise filters concerns through threshold criteria, and the choices the Pharmacy Order gives you.
Employers and inquests
Inquests: interested person status and giving evidence
What interested person status at an inquest gives a doctor. How to give evidence that protects you and the family.
Police and criminal
Allegations of a sexual nature by patients
How a patient's allegation of sexual misconduct runs on parallel police and GMC tracks. Why your records decide more of these cases than you expect.
The GMC process
The MPTS hearing from start to finish
What happens at an MPTS hearing from referral to final decision, stage by stage, with the 2025 outcome figures.
Other professions
Dentists and the GDC: how the process differs
How the GDC fitness to practise process differs, with four stages and its own committees. What its 2025 figures show.
Employers and inquests
The performers list: conditions, suspension and removal
How NHS England can impose performers list conditions, suspension or removal on a GP, and the deadlines you must meet.
The GMC process
What the GMC figures say about 2025
The GMC fitness to practise statistics for 2025 in plain terms, from concerns received to tribunal decisions.
The GMC process
Reflective practice after Bawa-Garba: are your reflections used against you?
Regulators say they will not ask for your reflections. Reflective practice notes carry no legal privilege, so how you write them matters.
The GMC process
Interim orders tribunals: what they decide, how often they suspend and how to prepare
The section 41A test an interim orders tribunal applies, what it decides, the 2025 figures and how to prepare.
Police and criminal
Criminal convictions and cautions: what you must tell the GMC
The cautions and convictions you must tell the GMC about without delay, and how the GMC then treats them.
Employers and inquests
Exclusion from work: your rights under MHPS
What MHPS requires before an NHS employer in England excludes a doctor, how reviews work and your rights while away.
Cover and fees
When your defence organisation says no: discretionary assistance explained
How a medical defence organisation uses its discretion, what falls outside it and what to do if refused assistance.
The GMC process
Writing a Rule 7 response: what persuades GMC case examiners
What the GMC's Rule 7 letter asks of you, the test case examiners apply and how to write your response.
Police and criminal
Interview under caution: a doctor's guide
Your rights at a voluntary police interview under caution, and how to prepare without harming your registration.
Cover and fees
Does your indemnity cover a GMC investigation?
Your indemnity for patient claims and the money to defend a GMC investigation are two different things. Many doctors find the gap late.
Employers and inquests
Maintaining High Professional Standards explained
How the MHPS framework governs an NHS investigation of a doctor in England, and your rights from the first letter.
The GMC process
What happens when the GMC receives a concern about you
How the GMC investigation process starts at triage, what turns a concern into an investigation and what to do.
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