Measures will include a new ability to dismiss complaints as frivolous or vexatious and a widening of cases where doctors voluntarily restrict their own practice rather than having conditions imposed.

Rises in GMC referrals of complex cases and complaints about substandard clinical care have helped to push up hearing lengths from 4.7 to 6.7 days over the past two years.

'The idea is to make the fitness-to-practise procedures slicker and less cumbersome both for the public but also for the doctors themselves,' said GMC chairman Sir Graeme Catto.

The GMC is planning to change its rules to allow 'exceptional' referrals to be treated as vexatious.

'Until now we have resisted this on the basis that the right thing to do is to deal with a complainant blind and as quickly as we possibly can,' said Paul Philip, GMC's director of standards and fitness to practise.

But these complaints 'can consume significant resources and cause undue stress for the doctors involved,' the GMC says.

The GMC is also seeking to expand its use of a type of agreed settlement known as consensual disposal. In this settlement type, doctors voluntarily undertake restrictions on their practice.

Undertakings are declared in the same way as conditions on a doctor's entry in the register.

Cases where doctors are likely to face erasure from the register will be excluded.

The GMC is still meeting its own targets of starting hearings within 15 months of receiving a complaint and nine months of referral from investigation.

But the council admits that it has 'consistently faced challenges' in meeting its adjudication targets.

In the past two years an increasing proportion of complaints have come from bodies such as the police and the NHS.

'Those cases threaten doctors' employment and allege more serious issues about the doctor's practice because the employers know more about it,' said Mr Philip.

The GMC's plans to streamline fitness to practise will go out for consultation.

prisca.middlemiss@haymarket.com

Comment below and tell us what you think