Prof Carrie MacEwen: key facts
- Kind of voice
- Regulator
- Role
- Chair of Council
- Organisation
- General Medical Council
- Organisation based in
- Holborn and St Pancras
- Quoted on
- Hospital discharge / bed-blocking
- Tracked press citations
- 1
- Most recently quoted
- 27 Aug 2026
Who Prof Carrie MacEwen is
Professor Dame Carrie MacEwen is Chair of the General Medical Council (GMC), appointed by the Privy Council in May 2022, having served as Acting Chair from August 2021. She is a consultant ophthalmologist for NHS Tayside and Honorary Professor at the University of Dundee. She previously served as Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges until 2020 and is a Past-President of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists. She has also been the clinical co-lead for the ophthalmology 'Getting It Right First Time' programme and the Eye Care Recovery and Transformation Programme for NHS England/Improvement. MacEwen is known for arguing that fair working environments and compassionate clinical cultures are essential to good patient outcomes, and has publicly pressed for better retention and support of the medical workforce.
“It is vital that workforce policies across all four [UK] countries do not inadvertently demoralise or drive out the talent on which our health services depend.”
References for this biography
- 1.New Chair for the General Medical Council – GMC — Confirms appointment as Chair by Privy Council, clinical and academic roles, prior leadership positions
- 2.Our Council members and how they're appointed – GMC — Confirms appointment date (May 2022), Acting Chair period, trustee roles, and committee service
- 3.Council Chair – GMC — Confirms role as specialty ophthalmology advisor to Scottish CMO, GIRFT clinical co-lead, and Eye Care Recovery programme lead
- 4.Carrie MacEwen GMC news for doctors August 2024 – GMC — Establishes her public advocacy on workforce retention and the need to support existing doctors
- 5.HQIP's Chair Dame Carrie MacEwen appointed Chair of General Medical Council – HQIP — Corroborates appointment, Honorary Professor status at University of Dundee, and NHS Tayside consultant role
- 6.Where you can find our offices – GMC — Confirms GMC London head office address: Regent's Place, 350 Euston Road, London NW1 3JN
Notable achievements
- Appointed Chair of the GMC by the Privy Council in May 2022, becoming only the second woman to hold the position in the organisation's 164-year history. Source ↗
- Served as Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges from 2017 to 2020. Source ↗
- Served as clinical co-lead for the ophthalmology 'Getting It Right First Time' programme and the Eye Care Recovery and Transformation Programme for NHS England/Improvement. Source ↗
- Chaired the Trustee Board of the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) until the end of 2023. Source ↗
Where Prof Carrie MacEwen has been quoted
- Overseas-trained doctors leaving the UK in record numberstheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026
Related media coverage
Recent UK press coverage of their topics — not necessarily citing them directly.
Contact & links
- Staff pagehttps://www.gmc-uk.org/about/how-we-work/governance/council/council-chair
- Press office emailpress@gmc-uk.orgpublished here ↗
- Press office phone020 7189 5454published here ↗
Organisational contact points only, each taken from a page the organisation publishes itself. No personal or direct contact details are held or shown.
Named officials of regulators, arms-length bodies and public agencies such as the CQC, NHS England or a local authority association. Citations are counted by an automated scan of UK press coverage and may be incomplete. Roles, biographies and contact details are researched and human-reviewed before they appear here; anything not yet reviewed is simply absent rather than shown unverified. This profile was last updated on 5 Oct 2026. See the methodology for how this page is built, or email contact@bridgeheadcommunications.com to correct anything on it.