Policy responses and statements

Name of organisation:

General Medical Council

Name of policy document:

Good Medical Practice explanatory guidance - a draft for consultation

Deadline for response:

13 June 2012

Background: The GMC was consulting on a range of guidance explaining the detail of Good Medical Practice. Good Medical Practice (2006) is the GMC's current core guidance for doctors. The GMC reviews it every five years to make sure it is up to date and reflects what doctors and patients think are the important principles and values of good care. Good Medical Practice is supported by a range of shorter statements which explain some of the principles in Good Medical Practice in more detail.

The consultation is part of the ongoing review of Good Medical Practice and was open to anyone who wished to comment on the issues in the revised guidance. The pieces the GMC was consulting on are:

Acting as a witness in legal proceedings
Delegation and referral
Financial and commercial arrangements and conflicts of interest
Ending your professional relationship with a patient
Maintaining boundaries which now splits into:
Intimate examinations and chaperones
Maintaining a professional boundary between you and your patient
Sexual behaviour and your duty to report
Personal beliefs and medical practice
Reporting criminal and regulatory proceedings within and outside the UK
Doctors’ use of social media
Taking up and ending appointments

Download Good Medical Practice explanatory guidance RESPONSE as a .pdf

Copies of this response are available from:

Lesley Lockhart,
Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh,
9 Queen Street,
Edinburgh,
EH2 1JQ.

Tel: 0131 225 7324 ext 608
Fax: 0131 220 3939

[6 June 2012]