MPTS Hearings
Review Hearings
Where you have been suspended or your registration has been subject to conditions at a fitness to practise hearing it may well follow that the Tribunal will list a review hearing to reconsider the sanction and your safe resumption of practise.
A Review hearing may be heard by MS Teams or attended in person at the Manchester Hearing Centre.
The Tribunal will comprise a legally qualified chair, a medically qualified member and a lay member. Directions will be provided and they will take into account the date of the expiry of your sanction.
It is important the directions are complied with because a Tribunal may award costs against you, refuse to admit your evidence or draw an adverse inference by the failure.
The Review hearing is not another opportunity to challenge or test the facts in relation to the allegation, the review Tribunal will review the findings of the fitness to practise tribunal or any previous review tribunal.
The first stage of the hearing is whether your fitness to practise remains impaired.
- The GMC will first set out their position and then you or where you have instructed us, we or your representative, will set out your position. In terms of evidence in support of your position it may include certificates of courses you have attended, statements from colleagues, written reflections and witness statements from you on your conduct.
- If the Tribunal determine you practice is no longer impaired then they will decide that no further sanction is necessary and it should follow the sanction will be revoked.
Be aware it may not be revoked immediately because it may have a short time remaining and they may feel it ought to continue to its expiry. The Tribunal do however have a discretion and submissions can be made as to the period of revocation.
If the Tribunal determine that your fitness to practise remains impaired the next stage is to consider if any sanction should be imposed.
Here the Tribunal must consider what sanction if any is appropriate and they have to be considered in order of increasing severity. Unlike the GMC the Tribunal has the power to impose any sanctions from the full range of sanctions mandated by the Medical Act 1983. Please see the sanctions pages of our website for the more detailed explanations of sanctions.
At the end of the hearing the Tribunal will give the reasons for its decisions and they will provide a written judgement of its reasons. Where there were applications determined within the hearing you will also receive written reasons for those decisions.
The tribunal’s judgement will be published on the MPTS website for twelve months, it will not be published if it is based on your health. Similarly where there is sensitive information in the determination it may be redacted.
- It is instructive to consider a couple of examples to show some of the issues that can arise, though of course every case turns on its facts.
- Dr M’s finding of impairment was based on his inappropriately touching a colleague twice which was found to be sexually motivated misconduct.
He undertook two courses with written reflections on the course, his PDP acknowledged alcohol affects his judgement, testimonials from current staff were very supportive, his witness statement showed he personally understood the gravity of the allegations, he diligently practised what he had learnt about boundaries and the Tribunal found it was highly unlikely the issue would be repeated.
Despite the GMC arguing Dr M remained impaired and there should be a further suspension the Tribunal ordered that the suspension would end on its expiry as ordered by the original fitness to practise tribunal.
At the fitness to practise tribunal Dr B had conditions imposed on his registration including limiting his work to ST3 Level or below, being clinically supervised for 12 months and designing a PDP to be approved by his responsible officer with checks on achievements. Dr B was unable to work for the full 12 months and though he undertook substantial CPD the GMC and he agreed to extending conditions. The Review hearing on the papers agreed he continued to be impaired and extended the conditions.
Please note that this is an overview only of the salient issues relating to hearings and cannot be relied upon as advice on your case. For full advice on procedure and legal issues please contact us directly and we will be pleased to assist you.
