General Chiropractic Council

Members of the Healthcare Professional Discipline appear before the GCC in all types of case covered by the Code (“The Standards of conduct performance and ethics for Chiropractors”) and other GCC published guidance.

Hearings include those before the Professional Conduct Committee (PCC) and the Health Committee (HC). Unlike for some other regulators the PCC rules establish a two stage process. The first stage involves a determination of factual allegations and a decision about whether, on the basis of the facts found proved, the conduct in question constitutes “unacceptable professional conduct” or “professional incompetence”. If the conduct is found to cross either of those thresholds stage two determines what action ought to be taken. The powers of the PCC range from admonishment (a formal warning) to the removal of the practitioner’s name from the register (striking off).

Although the procedure differs somewhat to some other healthcare regulators there is a significant overlap in the general professional standards which are expected of chiropractors and also in the approach to sanction in the event of a finding of unprofessional conduct or incompetence. The experience of the members of the Deans Court professional discipline team across the range of healthcare regulators provides them with an invaluable level of knowledge and experience which can be deployed. GCC hearings are adversarial (a barrister will be instructed to present the case on behalf of the GCC) which means that careful and skilful representation is extremely important.

Members of the team have represented chiropractors with great success from the early stages of an investigation right through to a final hearing to ensure the best possible outcome for the practitioner.