Modernising medical regulation: where are we now?

Purpose – This paper aims to outline and comment on the changes to medical regulation in the UK that provide the background to a special issue of the Journal of Health Organization and Management on regulating doctors. Design/methodology/approach – This paper takes the form of a review. Findings – Although the UK medical profession enjoyed a remarkably stable regulatory structure for most of the first 150 years of its existence, it has undergone a striking transformation in the last decade. Its regulatory form has mutated from one of state‐sanctioned collegial self‐regulation to one of state‐directed bureaucratic regulation. The erosion of medical self‐regulation can be attributed to: the pressures of market liberalisation and new public management reforms; changing ideologies and public attitudes towards expertise and risk; and high profile public failures involving doctors. The “new” UK medical regulation converts the General Medical Council into a modern regulator charged with implementing policy, and alters the mechanisms for controlling and directing the conduct and performance of doctors. It establishes a new set of relationships between the medical profession and the state (including its agencies), the public, and patients. Originality/value – This paper adds to the literature by identifying the main features of the reforms affecting the medical profession and offering an analysis of why they have taken place.