Good Medical Practice consultation
We are reviewing Good Medical Practice and held a public consultation on a revised draft between October 2011 and February 2012.
Good Medical Practice (GMP) sets out what is expected of all doctors registered with the GMC. All doctors are required to be familiar with and follow GMP. Patients can use the guidance to find out what they can expect from their doctors.
On this page you can find out about:
You can also read about the early engagement activity we undertook in 2011.
What happened during the consultation?
The consultation began on 31 October 2011 and closed on 10 February 2012.
At the start of the consultation we contacted over 1,100 stakeholders across the UK, including doctors, employers and representative bodies and notified the 450+ subscribers to our email update group.
We generated a lot of press activity with 36 individual items of print coverage in the week of the launch and we issued daily social media updates on a range of issues relevant to the review.
A range of methods for consulting
We offered three questionnaires for doctors, patients, and organisations to respond to the consultation, and ran a postcard campaign and an online survey for people aged 16-24. We also commissioned research into public and patient attitudes, and attended 65 meetings across the UK to discuss or raise awareness of the guidance.
Responses to the consultation
We received 591 responses to the three questionnaires:
Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond.
The postcard campaign
We also developed a set of postcards carrying questions on issues raised in the main questionnaires. We distributed these at meetings and conferences (and collected them via a ‘ballot box’) and in a variety of public spaces (returned via freepost).
We received:
- 602 ballot box postcards
- 400 freepost ‘postcards
The ‘Youth survey’
We ran a short survey - publicised through social media - seeking views from young people (particularly those aged 16-24).
We had a great response, with 320 individuals taking part from across the UK:
Commissioned research project
We commissioned focus group and interview research into public attitudes – the project was carried out by NatCen which won the competitive tendering process. They carried out 11 focus groups and five in-depth interviews across the UK with:
- Older people (including those in sheltered housing)
- People from BME communities
- Gypsy and traveller communities
- Asylum seekers and refugees
- Younger people (16-25)
- People from deprived social backgrounds including homeless and no fixed abode.
The aim was to find out, using scenarios based on issues in GMP (such as on personal beliefs and medical practice; access to care and doctors as advocates) what individual members of the public think makes a good doctor.
Getting out and about
We also attended around 60 meetings, conferences and other events in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to promote and discuss the guidance. We would like to thank everyone who attended and everyone who worked with us to deliver these meetings.
Next steps?
We’re now analysing all this data and will report back to our Working Group with the findings and recommendations about whether, and if so how, to change the guidance we consulted on. We’ll prepare more detailed feedback on the process when we launch the guidance.
Good Medical Practice is supported by a range of shorter statements which explain some of the principles in more detail. We also consulted on these pieces of guidance as part of the review, and we will publish revised versions at the same time as we publish Good Medical Practice. Sign up to our email update to stay in touch with the review.