Your Health Matters - low bandwidth version
Welcome to Your Health matters, our website for doctors with health concerns.
We understand that medicine is a challenging and stressful profession.
While making care for your patient your priority, we appreciate that you can be susceptible to health problems yourself.
If you are able to manage a health problem and maintain a good level of care for your patients, there is no need for the GMC to get involved.
It is difficult to provide a list of health conditions which we need to know about because our involvement relates, not so much to the health problem itself, as to the effect that the health problem may be having on your ability to care for your patients.
This may vary from person to person and will also be affected by what help you are receiving, how much insight you have into your own health problem and the support network you have both at work and at home.
If you have a health condition or have a problem with alcohol or drugs that may put patients at risk, you need to let us know so that we can ensure that patients are protected.
This site contains a range of advice for those of you with health concerns;
- help for those who are successfully managing your health conditions
- and those who are referred to the GMC for health related reasons.
If you have been referred to the GMC you may wish to contact your defence organisation or legal representative.
Some content on the site is written by the GMC, while other pages are by doctors who are involved in assessment and support processes.
You can also read the story of a doctor who has overcome serious health concerns and returned to work, in his own words. We hope you find the site useful.
If you would like to speak to someone about our procedures, please call our contact centre on 0161 923 6602.
In our Resources section you can find contact details for a range of organisations which support doctors with health concerns.
On this site
There is a wide range of support available to help you manage your health, so you can continue to practise and provide a good level of care to patients. See our section on managing your health.
A small number of doctors are referred to us each year for health reasons and we deal with these as sensitively as we can. If concerns are raised about your health condition putting patients at risk, you may be asked to have a health assessment. Find out more about the health assessment process.
A wide range of experts are involved in providing support, advice and carrying out assessments in relation to any risk to patients. Find out who they are and what they do – visit People who are involved.
In most cases relating purely to health, doctors going through our fitness to practise procedures enter voluntary agreements with us (called undertakings).
Once you have agreed undertakings, we will review your progress. A range of guidance and support is available to encourage your rehabilitation while protecting patients. Read more in our section on the supervision and monitoring process.
You can view our case studies to see typical outcomes for doctors with health conditions going through our fitness to practise procedures.
And you can hear from a doctor who has overcome serious health concerns and returned to work in the doctors’ experiences section.
Finally, you can get a print out of all information on this site, as well as organisations which support doctors with health concerns, in the resources section.