25.01.17
GMC publishes new confidentiality guidance for GPs
The General Medical Council (GMC) has published new guidance on confidentiality to assist all doctors practising in the UK.
The revised guidance – ‘Confidentality: good practice in handling patient information’ – comes into effect from 25 April following an extensive consultation process.
The GMC’s confidentiality guidance had last been published in 2009, with the council reviewing all of its guidance to clinicians approximately every five years.
Charlie Massey, its chief executive, said: “This refreshed, revised and restructured guidance on confidentiality will help doctors better understand their responsibilities when handling patient information in their everyday practice.
“We know doctors want more support and guidance on some of the complexities of confidentiality, and so as well as the revised guidance we are also publishing some supporting explanatory notes.”
While the principles are largely unchanged, the GMC’s updated guidance now clarifies doctors’ responsibilities regarding public protection – such as disclosures in the public interest – along with the importance of sharing information for direct care.
It also outlines circumstances in which doctors can rely on implied consent from patients to share information, acknowledging the role that those close to a patient, such as friends or relatives, can play in providing them with support.
To help doctors with the new guidance, the GMC has published an accompanying decision-making flowchart to show how the guidance applies to difficult situations such as reporting gun and knife wounds and disclosing information about contagious diseases.
The council has also confirmed that it will publish additional resources for doctors and patients when the guidance comes into effect in April.
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