Health secretary Wes Streeting has called a decision by the General Medical Council to erase the disciplinary record of doctors who have changed gender ‘extremely concerning’.
The GMC’s position came to light after a retired anaesthetist contacted the Telegraph newspaper with concerns that Dr Beth Upton – the trans doctor at the centre of a dispute over single-sex changing rooms at NHS Fife – had been given a new registration number.
The doctors’ regulator has now confirmed that Dr Upton is one of 62 doctors who have been given new registrations under different GMC numbers, meaning patients cannot see details of their previous identities on its database, or their previous disciplinary history.
A doctor’s GMC number appears on everything from prescriptions to records of training, appraisals, and complaints. Records of GMC disciplinary action are available to the public.
Streeting said the new registrations regime “should not have been allowed” and urged the GMC to urgently overhaul its practices.
He told The Telegraph: “It is completely within the power of the GMC to find a workaround for this that means transparency for patients, as well as protections in the Equality Act, are preserved. I expect them to make reassurances that they will address this.”
The GMC said that records of doctors pre- and post-transition are linked internally, but public links on the register between old and new identities are erased.
“If a doctor had received a historical sanction prior to transitioning, this information would not be available on their new public-facing record on the medical register,” it said.
It said this was because “there are clear legal protections afforded to individuals, including doctors, who transition, and relate to the use and disclosure of their personal information. This includes human rights and equalities law, data protection law and the Gender Recognition Act.”
Sandie Peggie’s tribunal claim against Dr Upton and NHS Fife has now been adjourned to July, but it was recently revealed that the nurse would face a misconduct hearing with her employer into allegations that she misgendered her colleague.
