New Doctors' disciplinary tribunal gets Chair

Following Dame Janet's powerful Shipman Report, HMG removed the GMC's adjudicatory powers over Doctors and vested them in a new state Tribunal- The Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator (OHPA) was born but never got going; it was put to the flames in the bonfire of the quangos last year and the GMC had to fill the breach with a new in- house quango of its own - The Medical Professions Tribunal Service was created - MPTS - funded by Drs rather than tax payers.....well now it has a Chairman -HHJ David Pearl- an academic (Professor at UEA) rather than lawyer - he has led the Immigration Appeal Tribunal as we'll as the Care Standards Tribunal whilst moonlighting on the Judical Appointments Comission as well as the Judicial College. MPTS gets started this Summer with promises of smaller, shorter and more efficient Tribunals...which the GMC has been promising for decades....fingers crossed......Read about it all here.