The regulation of British medical practice

This thesis begins by considering that modern medicine as a profession has tremendous scope for both good and ill, and as an enterprise consumes a vast amount of the national wealth. Against this background, the thesis considers how and why medicine is regulated, and what the effects of this regulation are. The study aims to assess the regulation of the medical profession against the interests of the state, the profession, and the consumers of health care, to see whether the regulatory mechanisms adopted adequately safeguard the interests of all parties concerned with the practice of medicine. The methodology chapter spells out the analytical techniques which the bulk of the thesis utilises and delimits the scope of the research to cover only bodies having a legal genesis and which are universal in application. A series of "core evaluation criteria" are identified against which the four regulatory mechanisms are assessed. Chapters 3 to 6 contain the bulk of the actual research into the four main areas of regulatory endeavour which the study considers; each is analysed in turn in terms of the purpose, mechanism and effect of the regulatory machinery being considered and then assessed against the core evaluation criteria. Finally, the conclusions chapter draws together the different threads which the sector-specific analyses have identified as being points of concern, and the system as a whole is evaluated to see whether the interests of the relevant stakeholders are adequately safeguarded, to identify any regulatory gaps which exist in the present system, and to point out the direction which anyone seeking to improve the system should conside