The regulation revolution: the future is here

摘要

What do patients, the public, and employers expect from doctors? Who should setthe professional standards? And how should we judge whetherdoctors are meeting those standards?Thefactthatquestions such as these get asked so often shows how much things have changed since the days when regulation was run by doctors for doctors and when most doctors were left alone from the daythey qualified to thedaythey retired, as Kieran Walshe and Julian Archer say in The BMJ this week(p 7). Instead we are moving to a world where "state sponsored regulation is run by key stakeholders-including employers, the public, and the profession-and is primarily concerned with the safety and quality of care." Key features of this new regulatory landscape are the overseeing of doctors' performance throughout their professional life and the use of data to understand variations in practice and to spot potential harm or safety concerns. A190 page bill representing the most radical and comprehensive reform of health profession regulation ever proposed has been shelved for the current parliament, but Walshe and Archer are confident that it is likely to make it to the statute books eventually, "not least because... the reforms are much needed."