About OHPA
The Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator (OHPA) is a new, independent body set up under the Health and Social Care Act 2008. It has been created to ensure clear separation between the investigation of fitness to practise cases by the General Medical Council (GMC) and the General Optical Council (GOC) and the process of determining whether a professional’s fitness to practise is impaired.
The introduction of independent adjudication will bring increased confidence to the public, patients and health professionals that decisions about the fitness to practice of doctors and optician are impartial, consistent, transparent, and separate from the regulators, the professions and Government.
OHPA will begin making decisions on fitness to practise cases brought before it by the GMC from April 2011 and at a later date the GOC.
OHPA’s main responsibilities will be to:
- Decide whether a doctor’s or optician’s fitness to practise is impaired;
- Ensure the safety of patients and the public by restricting a healthcare professional’s practice or removing them from the register for their profession where appropriate;
- Consider the need for temporary sanctions (interim orders) that will restrict a health professional’s practice or suspend them from practice prior to a full hearing;
- Decide whether a healthcare professional should be allowed to practise again after being removed from the register for fitness to practise reasons.
OHPA is in the early stages of development. Responsibility for the adjudication stage of fitness to practice cases will rest with the respective regulator until the transfer of the function to OHPA.
Want to know more? Take a look at our frequently asked questions.