GPs steal limelight at institute meeting
General practitioners were the centre of attention at today's ICAEW council meeting, where members agreed to push on with a controversial practice review regime.
Link: The Debate: The practice assurance scheme
Following a heated debate, the institute council members voted in favour of continuing the consultation process over ‘practice assurance’, but with increased input from the general practitioners’ panel.
Councillors argued over whether the system, aimed at all accountancy practices, should be voluntary or compulsory, and whether the system, through continuing professional development, should apply to accountants in business as well.
‘Binning practice assurance is not an option,’ said John Malthouse, chairman of the GPP, after Maurice Eade, head of the ICAEW’s professional standards board, had argued that the institute should have a compulsory system or no system at all.
The consultation will now continue with further proposals to be brought to the council meeting in February 2003.
Separately, the council agreed the constitution of ‘practice society’, a proposal to create a general practitioners help group, to be run on similar lines to the institute’s faculties.
