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August 2008

A communication from the General Medical Council
August 2008, Issue 48

What's New?

GMC launches consultation on Confidentiality guidance
GMC works to enhance medical leadership

Welcome to the August edition of the GMC e-bulletin

Please continue to send us your feedback, questions and ideas for topics you would like to see covered in future editions.

GMC launches consultation on Confidentiality guidance

Confidentiality is central to the trust between doctors and patients. Without assurances about confidentiality, patients may be reluctant to give doctors the information they need. However, appropriate information sharing is essential to the efficient provision of safe and effective care.

The GMC has launched a consultation on its revised draft confidentiality guidance for doctors. The existing guidance was published in 2004 following considerable public debate about the balance between respecting an individual's right to privacy and the benefits of various uses of patient identifiable information.

Confidentiality: a draft for consultation and the seven pieces of supplementary guidance that accompany it, cover topics including disclosure of information about serious communicable diseases and reporting gunshot and knife wounds. These pieces of supplementary guidance have been drafted following a review led by a working party of GMC members and external experts, chaired by Dr Henrietta Campbell, former Chief Medical Officer for Northern Ireland.

The consultation runs from 8 September to 28 November 2008. You can submit a response by using the GMC’s new public consultation site: https://gmc.e-consultation.net/econsult/, or by contacting the Standards and Ethics Team on 020 7189 5404.

GMC works to enhance medical leadership

Doctors can play a vital role in managing health services. The GMC has been working alongside the Joint Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, on a new project to develop a Competency Framework for medical leadership.

The Framework aims to enhance engagement in leadership among doctors of all levels, and is available online at www.institute.nhs.uk/mlcf. Information on other project activities is available at www.institute.nhs.uk/medicalleadership. Click here to read more about the framework

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