New guidance on Making and using visual and audio recordings of patient

18 April 2011

New guidance Making and using visual and audio recordings of patients is published today. It came into effect on 9 May 2011. This replaces the previous version of the guidance from 2002.

The guidance provides more detailed advice on how the principles in the GMC’s guidance Consent: patients and doctors making decisions together and Confidentiality apply in the context of making recordings of patients.

The guidance gives advice on recordings made and used as part of a patient’s care, for teaching, training, or assessment of health professionals and students, research, and for other purposes, such as recordings for the internet and broadcast on radio or television.

It also includes advice on making and using recordings of deceased patients, clarifies the exceptional circumstances when secret recordings of patients might be made, and includes new advice on storing and disposing of recordings, and ownership and copyright issues.

The guidance applies to original or copies of audio recordings, photographs and other visual images of patients that may be made using any recording device, including mobile phones.

View the guidance

You can view Making and using visual and audio recordings of patients online or you can download Making and using visual and audio recordings of patients 2011 (pdf).

Welsh versions of the guidance

Download the Welsh version of Making and using visual and audio recordings of patients (pdf).

Press release

A press release for the new guidance is available on our website.

Development of the guidance

We review all our guidance regularly to ensure that it is relevant to current practice and reflects the views of the profession and the public and other interested groups.

You can read about the development of Making and using visual and audio recordings of patients (116kb, pdf) which explains the process we undertook during the review. This included a formal public consultation to test the draft guidance.