News: Help with reporting knife wounds

01 December 2009

New tutorial helps doctors when treating a patient with knife wounds

A new online tutorial will help doctors balance patient confidentiality with risks to public safety when treating a patient with knife wounds. The tutorial is part of a new series of case studies added to the GMC’s award winning website Good Medical Practice (GMP) in Action.

This online resource explores common real-life medical and ethical dilemmas and explains how doctors should tackle them using GMC guidance. Users can role play the scenario in a virtual doctor consultation and choose which course of action a doctor should take.

The latest scenarios include:

• A 19 year old man is brought to you whilst you are on duty with stab wounds to his abdomen. You suspect the injury is the result of an assault. The man is adamant he doesn’t want to involve the police. Can you encourage your patient to speak to the police? What if anything should you disclose and when?

• Mr Hartley has Alzheimer’s and visits the surgery with his daughter Clementine who requests that her father has an ultrasound scan. How can you assess Mr Harley’s capacity to give consent and find out what his wishes are with Clementine in the consulting room?

• Mr Jessop visits you alone and confides that he thinks his wife is not fit to drive. Do you ask Mr Jessop to tell his wife about his visit and request her to come to the surgery or do you inform the DVLA yourself?

• You recently supervised Dr May, a junior (Specialty Trainee year 1) doctor whilst he worked with you on his training post. His attitude and communication skills were not good and he required further training before completing the post. He has written requiring a reference. Can you refuse? Should you provide a reference referring to factual information only, or can you offer an opinion about his suitability for the post?

Jane O’Brien Assistant Director Standards and Fitness to Practise said: 'We have had very positive feedback from users of GMP in Action, up to 1500 people visit the site every week. It is proving to be a valuable aid for doctors brushing up their knowledge and skills, and students have written to us praising the site’s usefulness for their exam preparation. We want the website to provide an interesting and accessible way to improve understanding of our guidance and to help doctors make decisions that are legally and ethically robust.'

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