Duties of a doctor registered with The General Medical Council

Patients must be able to trust doctors with their lives and well-being. To justify that trust, we as a profession have a duty to maintain a good standard of practice and care and to show respect for human life.

In particular as doctors we must and will:

• make the care of our patients our first concern
• treat every patient politely and considerately
• respect patients’ dignity and privacy
• listen to patients and respect their views
• give patients information in a way they can understand
• respect the rights of patients to be fully involved in decisions about their care
• keep our professional knowledge and skills up to date
• recognise the limits of our professional competence
• be honest and trustworthy
• respect and protect confidential information
• make sure that our personal beliefs do not prejudice our patients’ care
• act quickly to protect patients from risk if we have good reason to believe that a doctor or a colleague may not be fit to practise
• avoid abusing our position as a doctor
• work with colleagues in the ways that best serve patients’ interests
• in all these matters, never discriminate unfairly against our patients