GMC Confidentiality Guidance
The GMC has published new guidance for doctors on confidentiality. The guidance:
- sets out the principles of confidentiality and respect for patients’ privacy that doctors are expected to understand and follow
- takes account of the relevant legal and ethical considerations involved in helping doctors to make decisions that respect patients’ privacy, autonomy and choices and that also benefit the wider community of patients and the public
- takes account of changes in the law and guidance from other sources on confidentiality in the four UK countries
- is accompanied by seven pieces of supplementary guidance which explain how the principles in the core guidance apply in a range of situations doctors often encounter or find hard to deal with, including reporting concerns about patients to the DVLA, reporting gunshot and knife wounds and disclosing information about serious communicable diseases. These are available on the GMC website (link below).
The guidance will come into effect on 12 October 2009. Registered doctors will receive a copy of the guidance with the September 2009 issue of GMCToday.
Main guidance document (PDF)
The podcast below explores when a doctor can tell the police if a patient presents with a suspicious knife or gunshot wounds.
Dr Tunji Lasoye, lead consultant in King’s College Hospital Emergency Department talks about his experiences treating knife wounds and how the new guidance will help his work.