Consultant calls for reforms to GMC’s discriminatory disciplinary process

Our client, Omer Karim has been covered in the Times today following his landmark judgement last month. The Employment Tribunal ruled that the GMC discriminated against Karim on the grounds of his race. The GMC dropped allegations against a white doctor, yet continued it’s investigation against Karim for many years.

Quote: His Solicitor, Shazia Khan at Cole Khan is quoted:

“Shazia Khan, at the firm Cole Khan, says that she has been “inundated” with allegations from ethnic minority doctors since the Karim ruling. Echoing her client’s call for reform and a public enquiry, Khan says the GMC must urgently implement regular, mandatory diversity training and address the lack of diversity in its senior leadership team, which she says “appears largely male, pale and stale”.

At the provisional inquiry stage, Khan says that the GMC must scrutinise information from the trust to satisfy itself that referrals are free from bias or discrimination and not an attempt to victimise doctors.

In addition, she says that the regulator should set up a committee to investigate malicious and discriminatory referrals from trusts and hold those making them to account.

At the hospital level, Khan says that the “independent” investigator appointed by a trust to investigate a doctor’s conduct should be mutually agreed with the doctor’s union, and no referral to the GMC should be made until the hospital investigation has concluded.”

Read the full article in the Times Newspaper on 1 July 2021:

The Times, 1 July 2021 'Consultant calls for reforms to GMC's discriminatory disciplinary process'