Next Monday (16 March), we will be welcoming over 450 people to the Queen Elizabeth II centre in London for the GMC Conference. Our 2015 conference will explore the theme of creating a culture of openness, safety and compassion.
The conference will be chaired by BBC Medical correspondent Fergus Walsh and will include an interactive programme of workshops, discussion and debate.
Workshops will explore topics including embedding patient safety in the undergraduate curriculum, differential attainment, the GMC’s research programme, and revalidation and reflective practice.
Our interactive exhibition space will host discussions on a range of other issues. And our keynote panel session will bring together a range of experts to consider the headline topic: how can we create a culture of openness, safety and compassion?
If you missed out on tickets to GMC conference 15, fear not: shortly after the event we’ll be posting plenty of videos, interviews, blog posts and photos. On the day, we’ll be posting updates from our Twitter account @gmcuk, and using the hashtag #gmcconf.
Here’s what happened at GMC Conference 2013.
And here’s the agenda for this year:
09.30 – 10.30am: Registration and networking
10:30
Welcome and opening keynote speech – Professor Terence Stephenson, Chair, General Medical Council
11:15
Workshops (see below for details; we will be running the same workshops in the morning and the afternoon, so that you have the opportunity to attend two)
12:45
Opening of poster exhibition
13:00
Lunch and networking
14:00
Workshops (see below for details; we will be running the same workshops in the morning and the afternoon, so that you have the opportunity to attend two)
15:30
Keynote panel discussion: how can we create a culture of openness, safety and compassion? Panellists include:
Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director, Age UK
Niall Dickson, Chief Executive and Registrar, General Medical Council
Dr Mike Durkin, National Director of Patient Safety, NHS England
Dr Clare Gerada, Medical Director, Practitioner Health Programme
Dr Tim Ojo, Executive Medical Director and Responsible Officer, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Professor Craig White, Divisional Clinical Lead, Health Quality & Strategy Directorate, Scottish Government
16:30
Close of conference
Workshops
Promoting patient safety through undergraduate medical education
In this workshop we’ll bring together students and staff from medical schools across the UK to share good practice. The session will promote further sharing of good practice with take-away ideas for how your own programmes could be improved.
Differential attainment: understanding variations in performance in exams and training
We are carrying out a programme of work to explore the factors associated with doctors’ progression through training. During this session, we will share our initial findings and invite delegates to join an open discussion about how we and others can help to increase fairness in medical education.
An open book? Improving the medical register so it’s fit for the future
In this workshop we’ll discuss our initial thoughts on how and why we want to improve the data published on our register. We’ll explore a number of issues, including the balance between a doctor’s need for privacy, the demand for a register that contains richer information and the need to ensure it remains accurate and reliable.
Prioritising our research to improve our impact, understand the needs and challenges of the profession and protect patients
In this workshop you’ll learn more about the research we’ve already done, and we’ll gather your views on whether there is other evidence the GMC should collect to be an effective regulator and promote patient protection.
The benefits to doctors and patients of reflective practice as part of appraisal and revalidation
In this workshop we will explore the importance and impact of reflective practice for doctors undertaking appraisal and revalidation. The session will draw on the experience of doctors who have undertaken appraisal as part of revalidation and explore the expectations of patients.
Concerns about doctors – working with others to continue being fair, whilst achieving a more focused and faster outcome
There has been a significant increase in the number of complaints about doctors. This session will look at how the GMC can contribute to improving safety by focussing on concerns, resolving them more quickly and helping doctors avoid complaints to their regulator.
Improving medical education and practice across the UK 
unfortunately I will not be able to attend but hope that within the conference, special attention is paid to the unique difficulties faced by GP partners who witness concerns about their partners. In every other part of the NHS, doctors have protection as employees, with a management structure that has responsibilites for governance, patient safety and a duty to protect a ‘ whistleblower’ .
A GP partner on the other hand, has no such protection and his very job as a partner is threatened by any ‘ breach of trust’.
Recommendations and policies relating to public interest disclosure repeatedly refer to protection of ‘ staff who raise concerns’ . GP partners are NOT NHS staff and are in particularly vulnerable position if they raise concerns about a colleague.
As a result most GPs would leave a practice, rather than to raise serious concerns and risk the inevitable retribution.