Learning from COVID-19: PSA publishes report on regulators’ response

The report, which identifies early lessons from the initial phase of the pandemic up to July 2020, highlights new ways of working introduced by the regulators, such as online fitness to practise hearings and the use of websites to publish guidance on how professional standards apply in these unprecedented circumstances.

The report also identifies where there is potential for changes made to become standard practice, while also identifying where further planning, research and discussion will be needed. Two of the 28 case studies included in the report are from the GOsC. One of which looked at how the patient voice can be heard even when regulators are having to respond in a crisis.

GOsC’s Chief Executive and Registrar, Matthew Redford, said: ‘We welcome publication of this report from the PSA and appreciated the opportunity to contribute towards its findings. The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented crisis for all, including in regulation, and one of our key aims was to ensure that the patient voice was not lost. We very much recommend that osteopaths have a read of the report.’ 

Chief Executive of the PSA, Alan Clamp, said: ‘The regulators we oversee rapidly changed the way they do their work to help control the spread of infection, support and guide registrants and students, contribute to an increased workforce, and keep the show on the road.

‘There are many examples of positive innovations but the challenge now is to ensure that they do not diminish public protection or patients’ voices. We must also seek to understand better the pandemic’s unequal impacts, and how regulation can contribute to greater equality in future’.

Read the report