All clinicians must be registered medical doctors with a license to practise medicine in the UK. The regulatory body for this is the General Medical Council (GMC). The Clinicians’ contract of employment is conditional upon the clinician maintaining their GMC registration and licence to practise for the duration of the appointment.
Checking the Register
Registration can be checked via the GMC.
Registration Levels
- Provisional registration – Provisional registration with a licence to practise allows doctors to work in approved UK Foundation Year 1 post. It cannot be used for any other purpose.
- Full registration – Doctors need full registration with a licence to practise to work in unsupervised medical practice or in an approved Foundation Year 2 programme.
University posts with full registration are Clinical Research Associates, Clinical Research Fellows and Clinical Lecturers.
- Specialist registration – Most doctors taking up consultant posts in a medical or surgical specialty in any of the UK health services (other than as locum consultants) should hold full registration on the specialist register and a licence to practice.
University posts at the level of clinical consultant are Clinical Senior Research Associate, University Lecturer, University Senior Lecturer, Clinical Principal Research Associate, Clinical Director of Research, Clinical Reader and Clinical Professors.
- GP registration – Consultant GPs are doctors who have reached the level of Consultant and hold any of the above positions, but have opted to specialize in general medicine. They do not appear on the Specialist Register, but rather will have a date that they entered the GP register.
Revalidation
Clinician’s with a licence to practise have to take part in Revalidation, a process which demonstrates to the GMC that they are up to date and fit to practise medicine in the UK. Part of this process is by having regular joint appraisals with the University and NHS Trust / Body and submitting evidence to the GMC.
More information can be founded on the Revalidation webpages and by visiting the GMC Revalidation website.
Keeping your information up to date
It is extremely important that the information held by the GMC is kept up to date. For example, ensure that the Responsible Officer and Designated Body are updated should a clinician move to a different Trust/Deanery.
Fees
Medical Defence Insurance
All clinicians are required to hold Medical Defence Insurance. This insurance covers clinicians for any clinical trials and private practice work that is not covered by the Crown Indemnity insurance provided under the Honorary Contract with the relevant NHS Trust/Body. Medical Indemnity Cover protects the clinician, patients and employers.
For the avoidance of doubt any private medical practice work should be covered by the clinician’s own Medical Defence insurance as the University’s Professional Indemnity Insurance does not extend to this work.
Medical Defence Insurance is a contractual obligation and the University of Cambridge contract clause states:
You obtain, and maintain, at your own expense, membership of a Medical Defence Society at a level appropriate to the activities you will be undertaking in connection with your employment. You are asked to provide written evidence of membership of a Medical Defence Society to the Recruitment Adviser, School of Clinical Medicine at cshrclinical@admin.cam.ac.uk.
For queries about GMC Registration, Licence to Practice or Medical Indemnity Cover, contact cshrclinical@admin.cam.ac.uk.
