Profile of the GMC. Discipline III: The final stages.

Less than 15% of the complaints made to the General Medical Council reach the preliminary screening committee. Yet this committee is the first stage in the disciplinary process when real power can be exercised over the offending doctor. The diversion of so many complaints worries critics of the GMC.' The council argues that so many cases are diverted because they do not raise a question of serious professional misconduct, but the American sociologist Rosenthal has argued that limited resources may be the real reason.'