Consultation on explanatory guidance

The GMC is consulting on a range of guidance explaining the detail of Good Medical Practice. Find out how to take part and have your say.

Good Medical Practice (2006) is our current core guidance for doctors. We review it every five years to make sure it is up to date and reflects what doctors and patients think are the important principles and values of good care. Good Medical Practice is supported by a range of shorter statements which explain some of the principles in Good Medical Practice in more detail. You can read all our current guidance on our website at www.gmc-uk.org/guidance

The consultation is part of the ongoing review of Good Medical Practice. It’s open to anyone who wishes to comment on the issues in the revised guidance – this is your chance to have your say.

The consultation runs from Wednesday 18 April 2012 to Wednesday 13 June 2012.

On this page you can find out about:

• How to take part – including the guidance we’re consulting about
• What happens after you have contributed

How to take part

Taking part online

The pieces we are consulting on are:

• Acting as a witness in legal proceedings
• Delegation and referral
• Financial and commercial arrangements and conflicts of interest
• Ending your professional relationship with a patient
• Maintaining boundaries which now splits into:
  1. Intimate examinations and chaperones
  2. Maintaining a professional boundary between you and your patient
  3. Sexual behaviour and your duty to report
• Personal beliefs and medical practice
• Reporting criminal and regulatory proceedings within and outside the UK
• Doctors’ use of social media
• Taking up and ending appointments

We’ve developed questionnaires for each of the pieces of guidance we’re seeking views on. You can access each piece of guidance and accompanying questions on our consultation website.

Please note that once you register on the e-consult site, you can then respond to as many pieces as you like and will not have to re-register.

Read a PDF of the guidance

You can read a single PDF that contains all of the pieces of explanatory guidance (pdf). You can also read each piece of guidance as an individual PDF:

• Acting as a witness in legal proceedings (pdf)
• Delegation and referral (pdf)
• Financial and commercial arrangements and conflicts of interest (pdf)
• Ending your professional relationship with a patient (pdf)
• Maintaining boundaries which now splits into: (pdf)
  1. Intimate examinations and chaperones
  2. Maintaining a professional boundary between you and your patient
  3. Sexual behaviour and your duty to report
• Personal beliefs and medical practice (pdf)
• Reporting criminal and regulatory proceedings within and outside the UK (pdf)
• Doctors’ use of social media (pdf)
• Taking up and ending appointments (pdf)

Filling in a writable PDF

You can also download this writable PDF GMP Explanatory Guidance Questions (pdf) which contains questions on all the pieces of guidance. Complete this electronically and send by email to gmp2012@gmc-uk.org or post a printed copy to us.

Welsh version

You can read a single PDF in Welsh that contains all of the pieces of explanatory guidance (pdf). You can also read a Welsh version of each piece of guidance:

• Cyflawni rôl tyst mewn achosion cyfreithiol (pdf)
• Dirprwyo a chyfeirio (pdf)
• Terfynu' ch perthynas broffesiynol gyda chlaf (pdf)
• Trefniadau ariannol a masnachol a gwrthdaro rhwng buddiannau (pdf)
• Cynnal terfynau (pdf)
• Credoau personol ac arfer meddygol (pdf)
• Adrodd achosion troseddol a rheoleiddiol o fewn a thu allan y DU (pdf)
• Defnydd meddygon o gyfryngau cymdeithasol (pdf)
• Derbyn a therfynu penodiadau (pdf)

After you’ve taken part

When the consultation closes on Wednesday 13 June 2012, we will review all the feedback we have received and use this to finalise the draft guidance.

We will publish a document summarising the feedback we received and how we used it when we publish the new, final draft of Good Medical Practice and supporting guidance by the end of 2012.

If you have any further questions, please contact us by email at gmp2012@gmc-uk.org or by telephone on 020 7 189 5404.