Medical students are being taken to professional disciplinary hearings for parking violations, slack form-filling and nights out on the town as part of a draconian new system of sanctions.

Students are having their careers put at risk because medical schools are abusing new guidance from the General Medical Council (GMC) in an attempt to deter university high jinks and poor behaviour, a conference has heard.

The annual meeting of the British Medical Association (BMA) was told that students who set off fire alarms, have a messy kitchen or play loud music could face action that results in a permanent black mark on their record. The conference in Liverpool was told that a group of students who turned up to a lecture in dinner jackets after staying out all night were taken to a disciplinary hearing.

Drew Kinmond, a second-year student, said that medical schools were using GMC guidance on student behaviour to enforce rules “that the university creates at a whim”.

He said that “fitness to practise” rules had been used at one medical school to enforce parking regulations while another had suggested that poor student behaviour in halls of residence could result in disciplinary action.

“Loud music and an untidy kitchen not only warrant a fine of some £150 but also an automatic fitness to practise case to be heard,” he said. “Reports show that medical schools are using fitness to practise [rules] to prevent students from progressing unless they fill out the feedback forms for how they feel their lecturers performed.”

Mr Kinmond said that 3 per cent of all medical students in 2007 had a black mark on their record, which rose to 10 per cent last year. “If you break the university rules then you are also breaking fitness to practice rules. It’s incredibly broad. It’s up to the panel to decide on what you have broken. The rules should be about patient safety and professionalism and not about trivial housekeeping matters.”

Medical schools can hold GMC-style fitness to practise hearings and have a range of sanctions. In the most serious cases students can be expelled. Even if they do graduate, the GMC could ask questions about their conduct at medical school and refuse to register them. The GMC issued further guidance this year to help to standardise disciplinary procedures across medical schools and set out to students what is expected of them.

This states: “Students must be aware that unprofessional behaviour during their medical course . . . may result in the GMC refusing provisional registration. This is the case even if the circumstance in question occurred before or early on in medical school.”

The GMC expects students to declare any action taken against them by schools, the police or employers. Of 6,500 medical students who graduated last summer, 650 declared issues that might affect their fitness to practise. None of these students was prevented from registering.

The GMC said: “We ask for details about cautions and warnings to be sure that there are no patterns in a student’s behaviour that could put patients at risk. A couple of parking fines is not a cause for concern, whereas more serious offences such as reckless or drunk-driving would be subject to further investigation.

“In 2008 only a tiny percentage of declarations made to us were considered serious enough to investigate.”

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