Consent and confidentiality

  1. Summary
  2. Creating fair, respectful, and compassionate workplaces
  3. Helping to tackle discrimination
  4. Treating patients fairly
  5. Promoting patient centred care
  1. Supporting continuity of care and safe delegation
  2. Consent and confidentiality
  3. Taking care of your own wellbeing
  4. Communicating as a medical student
  5. Engaging with assessments policies and procedures

We’ve added new paragraphs and strengthened information in Achieving good medical practice, which focus on patient consent and confidentiality. This includes:

  • You should discuss with your supervisor and check that the patient has given consent before you carry out any invasive or intimate procedure. (Paragraph 16)
  • While you are at medical school, you'll learn that all patients have the right to be involved in decisions about their treatment and care, and be supported to make informed decisions. You'll also learn how to determine a patient has given consent or you have other valid authority before examining or treating patients. You'll learn that the consent process is about shared decision making between a doctor and a patient, where the doctor uses their specialist knowledge and experience to help their patient consider their options and make an informed decision. (paragraph 32)
  • You must keep records that contain personal information about patients, colleagues or others securely, and in line with any data protection law requirements and our guidance on Confidentiality: good practice in handling patient information. (Paragraph 69).

We've also added text to paragraph 25 about speaking to a supervisor if there's a question of confidentiality being broken.

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