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Response by the Christian Medical Fellowship to the General Medical Council on draft changes to its guidance Reporting criminal and regulatory proceedings within and outside the UK

Published: 9th July 2008

Article: Fixed Penalty Notices

1: Does the guidance make clear when doctors must tell the GMC about a fixed penalty notice? Yes

2: Do you agree that doctors should be required to tell the GMC about the fixed penalty notices listed in paragraph 4? Yes

2a: Please explain your answer. They all raise questions either of the individual doctor's fitness to practise, or of bringing the profession into disrepute

Article: Cannabis Warnings

3: Do you agree that doctors should be required to tell the GMC if they receive a warning for the possession of cannabis? Yes

3a: Please explain your answer. Possession is illegal and thus raises the question of bringing the profession into disrepute (doctors should set an example by obeying the law). Given growing evidence of the harmful psychiatric effects of cannabis, it raises the question of that doctor's fitness to practise. (There is also growing evidence of physical harms.) These two issues come together in that doctors guilty in this respect would illegally be 'modelling' behaviour harmful to health.

Article: Anti-Social Behaviour Orders

4: Do you agree that doctors should be required to tell the GMC if they receive an Anti-Social Behaviour Order? Yes

4a: Please explain your answer. Again, the twin aspects of bringing the profession into disrepute, and a possible indicator of fitness to practise concerns about the doctor.

Article: General

5: Is there anything missing from the guidance? No

6: Do you have any other comments on the guidance? Not sure

6a: Please include any other comments on the draft guidance in the box below. Is the wording 'another professional regulatory body' sufficiently clear? We presume it refers to another jurisdiction in another country, or to formal registration in another discipline. Would it help to add: 'eg in another country or in another discipline'?

For further information:

Steven Fouch (CMF Head of Communications) 020 7234 9668

Media Enquiries:

Alistair Thompson on 07970 162 225

About CMF:

Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF) was founded in 1949 and is an interdenominational organisation with over 5,000 doctors, 900medical and nursing students and 300 nurses and midwives as members in all branches of medicine, nursing and midwifery. A registered charity, it is linked to over 100 similar bodies in other countries throughout the world.

CMF exists to unite Christian healthcare professionals to pursue the highest ethical standards in Christian and professional life and to increase faith in Christ and acceptance of his ethical teaching.