The action against alleged racial/ethnic discrimination in the examination for the general practitioners' membership exam of The Royal College of General Practitioners filed by BAPIO (British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin) ended with a loss and a considerate advise from the judge that the RCGPs could address the differences in the pass rates between those who are white UK graduates and non-white non- UK graduates. Neither RCGPs nor GMC said anything against not talking about it. Friday, 11 April 2014
BAPIO loses High Court battle against RCGPs and GMC
The action against alleged racial/ethnic discrimination in the examination for the general practitioners' membership exam of The Royal College of General Practitioners filed by BAPIO (British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin) ended with a loss and a considerate advise from the judge that the RCGPs could address the differences in the pass rates between those who are white UK graduates and non-white non- UK graduates. Neither RCGPs nor GMC said anything against not talking about it. 
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I think if the UK Government leaves the European Union, it will have a significant positive impact on patients' safety as all EU doctors will have to sit the PLAB test and there will be no European Directives enabling these doctors for automatic inclusion onto the specialist register of the GMC and to work without assessment by the UK regulator. It is almost impossible to happen since the UK Government can not face the International pressure.
The Non EU doctors have to work hard and to prove that they are better than the UK doctors. Only then, they are able to get a higher position in the NHS.
Like the UCMLE in the US, PLAB should be mandatory for all doctors including the UK doctors. This will boost patients' as well as the public confidence.
I think there should an end to the appointment of a layperson as the Registrar of the GMC.
I think the GMC Registrar should be a medical person and not a layperson. This is my personal opinion that by putting an end to the appointment of a lay person to lead the GMC will minimise frustration among the medical experts.
The White British doctors are protected at almost every stage even though they are embarrassment to the medical profession.
I provide at least two examples,
1. Sir Peter Robin, the GMC Chair and a UK medical graduate did not know ‘Sham Peer Review’, when he was asked by Ms Charlotte Leslie, the Bristol MP and a member of the Commons Health Select Committee during the GMC latest accountability hearing on Tuesday 10 December 2013,
http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/health-committee/inquiries/parliament-2010/general-medical-council-2013/
‘’Q10 Charlotte Leslie: To follow the points Sir David was making, do you recognise or acknowledge that sham peer review takes place?
Professor Sir Peter Rubin: What do you mean by “sham peer review”?’’
He is still chairing the GMC and no one has a courage to even investigate him. If it were a BME doctor, he/she would have been ordered to undergo performance test.
1. In a well known case Pal V GMC, Dr Shiella Mann, the Ex-President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and a UK trained medical graduate, who was hired by the GMC as a health screener and made false allegations of mental illness against Dr Pal. The court likened the GMC as a 'Totalitarian Regime'. Dr Mann did not know how to spell 'discrete' and was heavily criticised by His Honour Judge Harris,
JUDGE HARRIS: '...doesn't know the correct spelling or meaning of the word discreet presumably, which is pretty alarming...'
No action was taken against and was treated like a 'saint'.
The BME doctors' English becomes an issue and a number of scandals can be reported whereby the UK graduates are unable to properly spell and at times misinterpret a passage written in simple English.
I agree with the above comments and would like to add that not only the PLAB (or any mutually agreed alternate test) but IELTS should be mandatory for all doctors (UK,EU etc) before there are registered with the GMC.
Laypersons like secretaries are not regulated by any regulatory body, so they can be easily used for political purposes. It is not clear if the GMC is acting on its own or at the direction of establishment to serve a wider purpose by targeting BME doctors.
BAPIO must continue its pressure in line with court ruling!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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