General Medical Council chief visits Jersey

The chief executive of the General Medical Council met the Health Minister and underwent a question and answer session with doctors during a recent visit to Jersey.

Charlie Massey, who leads the senior management team of the GMC as CEO, was in the island on Friday [5 July]. During his one day visit he met Health and Community Services Minister Deputy Richard Renouf, Director General Caroline Landon, Group Medical Director John McInerney and Group Managing Director Rob Sainsbury, to hear about the work being undertaken by the department.

The GMC works to protect patients and improve UK medical education and practice by supporting students, doctors, educators and healthcare professionals. Under his remit as Chief Executive Officer, Mr Massey regularly visits hospitals across the British Isles to see how things operate in different areas as well as to meet and talk to doctors.

During his visit Mr Massey also took part in two question and answer sessions – the first with HCS medical staff, including junior doctors, Speciality and Associate Specialist doctors and consultants, and the second with local GPs and representatives of the Primary Care Body.

Deputy Renouf said: "It was helpful to be able to meet Mr Massey and to showcase the organisational transformations we are making. A lot of work has been carried out in recent months to make improvements within Health and Community Services and this was a great opportunity for us to highlight the positive steps we have been taking."

The local GMC Responsible Officer, Prof John McInerney said: "This visit was an important opportunity to show the GMC, how HCS clinicians and other professionals shall lead our new HCS care groups, putting patients and users of our services at the ‘centre of all we do’. We also showcased our educational, training and appraisal systems that are key in maintaining Good Medical Practice standards and discussed how improving culture by utilising our Quality and Safety framework can help make us better doctors."

Mr Massey added: "As a regulator we work with doctors on the island to support them in improving patient care. It’s been a privilege to visit Jersey and see first-hand how things are run and how we can support doctors further. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed meeting the dedicated doctors who work hard every day to deliver fantastic care to patients, and want to thank everyone for their warm welcome."