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Regulatory bodies

September 2007

Regulatory bodies exist to register practitioners, in this case healthcare professionals, to maintain standards and ensure protection for people using the services of those registered. The Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE) is the overarching statutory body which promotes best practice and consistency in the regulation of healthcare professionals by the following nine regulatory bodies:

• General Chiropractic Council
• General Dental Council
• General Medical Council
• General Optical Council
• General Osteopathic Council
• Health Professions Council
• Nursing and Midwifery Council
• Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland
• Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.

For more information, see the CHRE website

The three main regulators of healthcare professionals, in terms of this glossary, are the:

General Medical Council (GMC)
The purpose of the GMC is to protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the public by ensuring proper standards of doctors in the practice of medicine by:

• keeping up-to-date registers of qualified doctors
• fostering good medical practice
• promoting high standards of medical education
• dealing firmly and fairly with doctors whose fitness to practise is in doubt.

The GMC has strong and effective legal powers designed to protect patients by maintaining the standards the public have a right to expect of doctors. Doctors who fail to meet those standards can be removed from the register which removes their right to practise medicine. The values of the GMC are embodied in the publication Good Medical Practice which underpins its work.

For more information see the GMC website

Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)
The core function of the NMC is to establish and improve standards of nursing and midwifery care in order to serve and protect the public by:

• maintaining a register listing all nurses and midwives
• setting standards and guidelines for nursing and midwifery conduct, performance and ethics
• quality assuring nursing and midwifery education
• considering allegations of misconduct, lack of competence or unfitness to practise due to ill health.

For more information see the NMC website

Health Professions Council (HPC)
The HPC protects the health and wellbeing of patients by keeping a register of health professionals who meet the council’s standards for training, professional skills, behaviour and health. The HPC regulates 13 health professions with protected titles. Anyone who uses one of the following titles must register with the HPC:

• arts therapist
• biomedical scientist
• chiropodist and podiatrist
• clinical scientist
• dietitian
• occupational therapist
• operating department practitioner
• orthoptist
• paramedic
• physiotherapist
• prosthetist and orthotist
• radiographer
• speech and language therapist.

For more information see the HPC website

The regulators for healthcare professionals not listed above are mentioned under their individual entries in the glossary.