Government confirms commitment to reforming the regulation of healthcare professionals 

The Government have confirmed in a Written Ministerial Statement, its commitment to reforming the regulation of healthcare professionals across the UK and delivering legislation relating to the Health and Care Professions Council in this Parliamentary period.

A number of regulators have issued comments following the Government confirmation.

The GMC’s Chief Executive and Registrar, Charlie Massey, said:

‘We welcome this announcement from the Minister of State for Health and Secondary Care.

‘Updating our antiquated legislation is a crucial step in enabling us to take a more responsive and flexible approach to regulation, and will make our processes simpler, faster and less adversarial.

‘We remain ready to progress this as soon as the Department for Health and Social Care lays the necessary legislation. We look forward to working with them, patients and our registrants to ensure we deliver effective, relevant and compassionate regulation that benefits patient safety and ensures public confidence in the professions we regulate.’

Bernie O’Reilly, CEO & Registrar at the Health and Care Professions Council said:

The Government’s commitment to delivering legislative reform in this Parliament is a positive step forward and one that we welcome.

Our registrants are already seeing the effects of the significant changes that are taking place across health and care. New legislation will allow us to adapt to this changing environment and continue to protect the public into the future.

Reform of our legislation is long overdue. We will continue to work with colleagues in Government to ensure that the changes are brought about as quickly as possible, so that we are better able to support registrants and protect the public.

The PSA commented that the changes will allow regulators to be more agile and efficient in protecting the public. They will also introduce a less adversarial and quicker process for dealing with concerns about healthcare professionals. The work will begin with the General Medical Council’s (GMC) framework for doctors, before moving on to the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

These changes will support a more proportionate and targeted approach, in line with the PSA’s own right-touch regulation approach. There is, however, still work to be done to make sure the changes to the legislation strike the right balance between efficiency and autonomy on one hand, and public protection and accountability on the other.

These once-in-a-generation reforms are also an opportunity to look again at how decisions about who needs to be regulated are made. If it is done right, this is an opportunity to reduce any over- and under-regulation, in step with the Government’s agenda for the wider regulatory sector. This will help make sure the scale of change needed within the UK health services happens in a safe way.

Caroline Corby, Chair of the PSA said:

“We’re delighted to see this commitment from the Government to the next phase of these reforms, which have been in the pipeline for many years. A regulatory framework that enables greater agility and responsiveness by the regulators should support the upcoming reforms of the NHS and have benefits for both the public and health professionals.”

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