UK healthcare regulators explained
An overview of the GMC, NMC, GDC, and the tribunal services that hear cases against UK healthcare practitioners — who regulates whom, and how the system fits together.
Written by the MedicWatch editorial team. Last reviewed 25 April 2026.
Different healthcare professions in the UK are regulated by different statutory bodies. Each one maintains a register of who can practise, sets standards, investigates concerns, and holds hearings when those standards are alleged to have been breached.
General Medical Council (GMC)
The GMC regulates doctors, physician associates, and anaesthesia associates in the UK. It maintains the medical register, sets the standards expected of doctors in Good Medical Practice, oversees the licence-to-practise system, and investigates concerns about fitness to practise.
When the GMC investigates a concern, it may close the case, issue a warning, accept undertakings, or refer the case to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) for a hearing.
Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS)
The MPTS is operationally separate from the GMC and runs the hearings. It decides whether a doctor's fitness to practise is impaired and, if so, what sanction to impose. Sanctions a tribunal can impose include erasure (being struck off the register), suspension, conditions on practice, a warning, undertakings, or no action.
Tribunals are made up of members independent of the GMC's investigation function: a medically qualified chair or member, a lay member, and a legally qualified panel chair on most cases.
Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)
The NMC regulates nurses, midwives, and nursing associates. It maintains the register and the standards (the Code), and runs its own fitness-to-practise process end-to-end — investigation, case examination, and hearings are all conducted under the NMC's auspices.
Cases that proceed to a substantive hearing are heard by an independent panel, which can impose erasure, suspension, conditions on practice, a caution order, or take no action.
General Dental Council (GDC)
The GDC regulates dentists and dental care professionals — including dental nurses, hygienists, therapists, technicians, clinical dental technicians, and orthodontic therapists. Like the GMC, it maintains the register and investigates concerns. Cases proceed through case examiners, who can refer them to the Dental Professionals Hearings Service (DPHS).
Dental Professionals Hearings Service (DPHS)
The DPHS runs hearings for cases referred by the GDC. Practice committees include Professional Conduct, Professional Performance, Health, Interim Orders, and Registration Appeals. Sanctions can include erasure from the register, suspension, conditions on practice, a reprimand, or no further action.
Other UK healthcare regulators
Beyond medicine, nursing, midwifery, and dentistry, other professions are regulated by other bodies — the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) for pharmacists, the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) for fifteen professions including paramedics and physiotherapists, and the General Optical Council (GOC) for opticians and optometrists. MedicWatch's launch dataset covers the GMC/MPTS, NMC, and GDC/DPHS only; other regulators may be added later.
Sources
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