The General Medical Council (GMC) has set new targets to eliminate disproportionate complaints from employers about ethnic minority doctors and eradicate disadvantage and discrimination in medical education and training.
Currently, doctors from ethnic minorities are twice as likely to be referred to the GMC by their employers for fitness to practise concerns than white doctors, and the referral rate for doctors qualifying outside of the UK is three times higher than that for UK doctors.
The targets, to be met by 2026 and 2031 respectively, focus on areas where clear evidence of disproportionality has been seen over time. They will hold the doctors’ regulator accountable for taking action and working through others to deliver change.
Dr Camilla Kingdon, RCPCH President, said:
We welcome the publication of the new targets set by the General Medical Council (GMC) to eradicate disadvantage and discrimination in medical education and training. We are pleased to see the focus on eliminating disproportionate complaints from employers about ethnic minority doctors, particularly those that qualified abroad, which has long been of concern.
The working lives of paediatricians has been one of our four areas of focus in our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) work set out last year. Disparities in exam pass rates are an important area to all our members. It is right that the GMC does its part to challenge and subvert unequal structures in medicine. As part of our own work, we continue to commit to working with the GMC in trying to meet their requirements so that inequity is rooted out of paediatrics and child health outcomes.