A disproportionate amount of medical expert witnesses are men, General Medical Council (GMC) data has shown.
A mere 11% of experts instructed in fitness to practise cases are women. The figures were obtained by Medical Protection Society (MPS) through a freedom of information request to the GMC—86% were men and 3% did not specify gender.
The MPS, which supports the interests of medical professionals, highlighted a shortage of doctors willing to take on expert work as well as a general lack of diversity among medical experts, in its report ‘Getting it right when things go wrong: the role of the medical expert’, published last week.
Dr Lucy Hanington, medicolegal consultant at MPS, said: ‘It is important that the pool experts are drawn from is diverse and representative of the profession.’
