Regulating doctors, ensuring good medical practice

Responsibility and accountability

  1. 16. Whether you have a management role or not, your primary duty is to patients. Their care, dignity and safety must be your first concern. You also have a duty to the health of the wider community, your profession, your colleagues and the organisation in which you work.  

All doctors

  1. 17. You should establish clearly with your employer the scope of your role and the responsibilities it involves, including non-clinical responsibilities. You should raise any issues of ambiguity or uncertainty about responsibilities, including in multidisciplinary or multi-agency teams, to clarify: 
    1. a. supervision arrangements for staff and lines of accountability for the care provided to individual patients (for more information on supervision see paragraphs 60–62 of this guidance)
    2. b. who should take on leadership roles or line-management responsibilities
    3. c. where responsibility lies for the quality and standard of care provided by the team.

Doctors with extra responsibilities

  1. 18. If you are responsible for leading or managing a team, you must make sure that staff are clear about:
    1. a. their individual and team roles and objectives
    2. b. their personal and collective responsibilities for patient and public safety
    3. c. their personal and collective responsibilities for honestly recording and discussing problems.
  3. 19. You should:
    1. a. contribute to setting up and maintaining systems to identify and manage risks in the team’s area of responsibility
    2. b. make sure that all team members have an opportunity to contribute to discussions
    3. c. make sure that team members understand the decisions taken and the process for putting them into practice
    4. d. make sure that each patient’s care is properly coordinated and managed.
  5. 20. You are accountable to the GMC for your own conduct and any medical advice you give. This includes while you serve as a member of a decision-making body for a health or social care organisation, such as a hospital or health board.
  6. 21. If, as a member of a board or similar body, you are concerned that a decision would put patients or the health of the wider community at risk of serious harm, you should raise the matter promptly with the chair. You must also ask for your objections to be formally recorded and you should consider taking further action in line with our guidance in Raising and acting on concerns about patient safety.1