Former Charity Commission chair Dame Suzi Leather will join the governing body of the General Medical Council in January as part of reforms to the medical regulator.
The new council for the GMC was announced this morning and will start its term of office in January 2013. With 12 members it is half the size of the previous council. It is the third time the size of the council has been reduced in ten years. In 2003 it was reduced from 104 to 35 members and to 24 members in 2009.
From 2002 to 2006, Leather was chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and has also chaired the School Food Trust, the Food Standards Association and the Exeter and District Community NHS Trust. Her term as chair of the Charity Commission came to an end earlier this year.
Sir Peter Rubin became the GMC’s first appointed chairman in September 2012 and chaired the selection panel, which was made up of three other independent assessors, for the new council members. He was elected to the role in 2009 and retained the position following an open and competitive application process.
The announcement of the smaller board is part of a modernisation of healthcare regulators being carried out after the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence made the recommendation to government that regulators should have a smaller governing body. The GMC is the independent regulator for doctors and a registered charity.
Rubin said: “The move to a smaller council is a historic change and will play a critical role in setting out a clear vision and direction for the GMC at a time of great change for doctors and patients.”
The previous council established the principle of having an equal number of medical and non-medical members and the new council has six medical and six non-medical members and at least one person is based in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Jim McKillop, Enid Rowlands and Hamish Wilson are the only three members to have been re-appointed.
The full council will be:
- Sir Peter Rubin (chair)
- Dr Shree Datta
- Lady Christine Eames
- Professor Michael Farthing
- Baroness Helene Hayman
- Lord Ajay Kakkar
- Professor Jim McKillop
- Professor Deirdre Kelly
- Dame Suzi Leather
- Dame Denise Platt
- Mrs Enid Rowlands
- Dr Hamish Wilson
