Patients must be able to trust doctors with their lives and health. To justify that trust you must show respect for human life and you must:
- Make the care of your patient your first concern
- Protect and promote the health of patients and the public
- Provide a good standard of practice and care
- Keep your professional knowledge and skills up to date
- Recognise and work within the limits of your competence
- Work with colleagues in the ways that best serve patients' interests
- Treat patients as individuals and respect their dignity
- Treat patients politely and considerately
- Respect patients' right to confidentiality
- Work in partnership with patients
- Listen to patients and respond to their concerns and preferences
- Give patients the information they want or need in a way they can understand
- Respect patients' right to reach decisions with you about their treatment and care
- Support patients in caring for themselves to improve and maintain their health
- Be honest and open and act with integrity
- Act without delay if you have good reason to believe that you or a colleague may be putting patients at risk
- Never discriminate unfairly against patients or colleagues
- Never abuse your patients' trust in you or the public's trust in the profession.
You are personally accountable for your professional practice and must always be prepared to justify your decisions and actions.
I have been registered with the GMC since 1981. More aspects of good practice will follow......
2 comments:
I have a question regarding Patient Confidentiality. If your patient has a contagious disease and refuses to take the necessary precautions are you still obliged to keep the Confidentiality? In my opinion, since the patient is a threat to public health you should speak up.
You bring up a good point and of course you are right. For example, you might recall the case last summer of a patient who was infected with extremely drug resistant TB and travelled on a number of airlines from the US to Europe. The CDC informed the authorities at all the ports of call of this person and he was finally "caught". The good of the many outweighs the confidentiality of one.
Post a Comment