Patients must be able to trust doctors with their lives and health. To justify that trust they must show respect for human life and must:
- Make the care of the patient your first concern.
- Protect and promote the health of patients and the public.
- Provide a good standard of practice and care:
- Keep professional knowledge and skills up to date.
- Recognise and work within the limits of competence.
- Work with colleagues in the ways that best serve patients' interests.
- Treat patients as individuals and respect their dignity:
- Treat patients politely and considerately.
- Respect patients' right to confidentiality.
- Work in partnership with patients:
- Listen to patients and respond to their concerns and preferences.
- Give patients the information they want or need in a way they can understand.
- Respect patients' right to reach decisions with you about their treatment and care.
- Support patients in caring for themselves to improve and maintain their health.
- Be honest and open and act with integrity:
- Act without delay if they have good reason to believe that they or a colleague may be putting patients at risk.
- Never discriminate unfairly against patients or colleagues.
- Never abuse a patients' trust or the public's trust in the profession.
- They should always be personally accountable for their professional practice and must always be prepared to justify their decisions and actions. (check back soon for my blog post on getting your GP to personally guarentee the safety of the vaccination they are about to administer).