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Medico-legal experts have rejected key components of the chief medical officer's review of the regulatory framework.

The Medical Defence Union (MDU), said that overall it could see no reason to add more regulation on to the working lives of doctors, who are already among the most regulated professions in the UK.

In particular, the MDU criticised the proposal to introduce GMC and lay ‘affilliates’, and the plan for a new national committee to review ‘recorded concerns’.

The response stated: ‘In the interests of patient safety, better and more constructive use should be made of existing procedures and of other mechanisms that exist for measuring and assessing doctors’ performance and conduct, with the aim of taking remedial action before serious concerns arise.

‘We believe that such a system would be more cost-effective than adding new and different regulatory layers, and suggest that comparative costings are prepared.’