Bill Harvey: Stick it to the man

Should there be fewer regulatory bodies?

This is one of the many questions posed in the Department of Health’s consultation document ‘Promoting professionalism, reforming regulation.’ There are currently around 1.5 million registered health professionals in the UK representing 32 professions (how many can you name?), registered with and regulated by nine regulatory bodies. These include the GDC (dentists who have the greatest fitness to practice expenditure), GCC (chiropractors), the GMC and of course our own GOC.

How they each protect the public, by regulating education (CET and CPD), improving public awareness and understanding, providing complaints and disciplinary procedures and ensuring fitness to practice among individual and group service providers, varies significantly.