By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health & Medicine Week -- The General Medical Council (GMC) regulates doctors in the UK and can stop or limit their rights to practice. Around 9000 doctors a year are reported to the GMC, and around 160 are suspended or erased from the medical register.

Apart from those referred to the GMC, many other complaints are investigated formally or informally by hospitals and practices, meaning a doctor could be investigated a number of times for the same issue over a drawn out time period.

Now, new research from Imperial College London has shown for the first time an association between the way complaints are handled and symptoms of anxiety, depression, and defensive medical practice in doctors. Examples of defensive practice include over-prescribing medicines and sending patients for unnecessary scans and procedures. Doctors can also engage in avoidance behaviours such as evading difficult procedures or not accepting high-risk patients.

Previous studies have shown higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts in doctors being investigated, but …

CITATION: (2017-12-08), Health service complaints system risking patients’ and doctors’ health, Health & Medicine Week, 780, ISSN: 1532-4605, BUTTER® ID: 014811509

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