GMC appoints new chair

DAME Carrie MacEwen has been appointed chair of the General Medical Council (GMC) by the Privy Council.

She was formerly acting chair of the GMC, having taken on the role after Dame Clare Marx stepped down due to ill health – and this makes her only the second woman to hold the chair since the GMC was established 164 years ago.

Dame Carrie MacEwen said: "I am delighted and feel very privileged to have been appointed the next Chair of the GMC. This is a particularly challenging time for healthcare and I look forward to working collaboratively with partners across all four countries of the United Kingdom to support doctors to provide the best possible care for patients.

"I would like to pay tribute to my predecessor, Dame Clare Marx, whose legacy of compassionate support for doctors will endure; fair, open and respectful working environments are essential for clinicians to be able to perform at their best and, therefore, provide the safest patient care."

Dr John Holden, chief medical officer at MDDUS, commented: "We congratulate Dame Carrie MacEwen on her appointment as Chair of the GMC at a time of considerable change and reform across the regulatory landscape.

"She is an excellent successor to Dame Clare Marx and will, I am sure, look to continue her work to enable fair, open and respectful practising environments for doctors.

"We were reassured by Dame Carrie’s statement in October last year that any concern raised with the GMC about a doctor, relating to the pandemic, will take into account the extraordinary circumstances we have all lived through.

"With her appointment today, we look forward to this commitment remaining at the front and centre of the regulator’s approach to dealing with any issues arising from decisions or actions taken by doctors during Covid-19."