The duties of medical professionals registered with the GMC

Patients must be able to trust medical professionals with their lives and health. To justify that trust you must make the care of patients your first concern, and meet the standards expected of you in all four domains.

Knowledge, skills and development

• Provide a good standard of practice and care, and work within your competence.
• Keep your knowledge and skills up to date.

Patients, partnership and communication

• Respect every patient’s dignity and treat them as an individual.
• Listen to patients and work in partnership with them, supporting them to make informed decisions about their care.
• Protect patients’ personal information from improper disclosure.

Colleagues, culture and safety

• Work with colleagues in ways that best serve the interests of patients, being willing to lead or follow as circumstances require.
• Be willing to share your knowledge, skills and experience with colleagues, whether informally or through teaching, training, mentoring or coaching.
• Treat people with respect and help to create a working and training environment that is compassionate, supportive and fair, where everyone feels safe to ask questions, talk about errors and raise concerns. 
• Act promptly if you think that patient safety or dignity may be seriously compromised.
• Take care of your own health and wellbeing needs, recognising and taking appropriate action if you may not be fit to work.

Trust and professionalism

• Act with honesty and integrity, and be open if things go wrong. 
• Protect and promote the health of patients and the public.
• Never unfairly discriminate against patients or colleagues.
• Never abuse patients’ trust in you or the public’s trust in your profession.