Donald Irvine

Sir Donald Hamilton Irvine (2 June 1935 – 19 November 2018) was a British general practitioner (GP) who was president of the General Medical Council (GMC) between 1995 and 2002, during a time when there were a number of high-profile medical failure cases in the UK, including the Alder Hey organs scandal, the Bristol heart scandal and The Shipman Inquiry. He transformed the culture of the GMC by setting out what patients could expect of doctors and is credited with leading significant changes in the regulation of professional medicine and introducing the policy of professional revalidation in the UK.

Irvine was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, where his father was a sole practitioner GP. After qualifying in medicine and spending some time working with his father, he joined colleagues from two practices to establish a multidisciplinary teaching practice and thereafter followed a career with various committees including as regional adviser in general practice, the Joint Committee on Postgraduate General Practice Training, chair of council of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and later the GMC committee on professional standards and ethics. In 1979, he received an OBE, in 1987 a CBE and in 1994 he was Knighted.

In 1999 Irvine's GMC presidency was unsuccessfully challenged by obstetrician Wendy Savage, the first time anyone had stood in opposition to an incumbent president. Irvine won by 30 votes, the GMC agreed to request revalidation and Irvine decided to step down ten months early.

He became internationally known for his work with the Picker Institute and in 2017 was awarded the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) healthcare quality and safety award. He also wrote the books, The Doctors' Tale: Professionalism and Public Trust (2003) and the memoir Medical Professionalism and the Public Interest: Reflections on a Life in Medicine (2017).

Early life and education Donald Irvine was born on 2 June 1935 in Newcastle upon Tyne, to Andrew Bell Hamilton Irvine and Dorothy Mary Irvine née Buckley. He was brought up in Ashington, Northumberland, a coal mining community, where he travelled to and from school with soot covered miners. and his home was also the surgery, so his home life revolved around his father's patients. and later graduated in medicine from Durham University in 1958. Having contracted rheumatic fever exempted him from National Service.

Irvine began to take up committee posts, first as regional adviser in general practice and then in the 1970s, as a member of the Merrison Committee of Inquiry into the Regulation of the Medical Profession. It gave him the foundation from which he could plan to raise the profile of general practice. It was an appointment that he kept until stepping down in 2002. His first role as president was to chair the conduct committee that handled the Bristol heart scandal, On 18 June 1998 at a disciplinary hearing, Irvine told two paediatric heart surgeons and the chief executive of the United Bristol National Health Service (NHS) Trust, that they were guilty of serious professional misconduct. Subsequently, restoring public trust became an issue.

He pushed for "revalidation", a five-yearly assessment of doctors' fitness to practise, which was later introduced in 2012. and he is credited with turning the GMC's philosophy from one of protecting doctors to that of protecting patients.

In 1999 Irvine's presidency was unsuccessfully challenged by obstetrician Wendy Savage, the first time anyone had stood in opposition of an incumbent president. The GMC finally agreed to ask the government for legislation to introduce revalidation, and subsequently Irvine stepped down 10 months early in 2002.

He became internationally known following his work with the Picker Institute.

Awards and honours In 2017 he was awarded the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) healthcare quality and safety award. In 1998, he was an inaugural Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Personal and family As well as his interest in aviation, In this account, he highlighted the importance of role models, his concern over the influence of hospital consultants and the standing of the British Medical Association.

Selected publications Articles

Books The Doctors' Tale: Professionalism and Public Trust, Radcliffe Medical Press (2003), Medical Professionalism and the Public Interest: Reflections on a Life in Medicine, RCGP Heritage Committee (2017).

Book chapters "Approaches to Quality Improvementin the British National Health Service", co-authored with Liam Donaldson, in The Epidemiology of Quality by Vahé A. Kazandjian and Elizabeth Sternberg, An Aspen Publication (1995), "Problem Doctors in the UK: Role of the General Medical Council", in Problem Doctors: A Conspiracy of Silence edited by Peter Lens and G. A. van der Wal, IOS Press (1997), "Professionalism and Professional Regulation", in Medical Education and Training: From Theory to Delivery edited by Yvonne Carter and Neil Jackson, Oxford University Press (2009),