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• Be honest and open and act with integrity - Act without delay if you have good reason to believe that you or a colleague may be putting patients at risk - Never discriminate unfairly against patients or colleagues - Never abuse your patients’ trust in you or the public’s trust in the profession. You are personally accountable for your professional practice and must always be prepared to justify your decisions and actions.
What standards are expected of a GP? In seeking to define good medical practice for GPs, the GMC’s Good Medical Practice was used as the starting point. Extracts from the 2006 edition of the GMC’s document are reproduced in italics at the start of each section. In each section we have described why that particular aspect of care is important for GPs. We have then anchored these general descriptions by summarising under each heading some points that describe an ‘exemplary GP’ and some that describe an ‘unacceptable GP’. While the issues we discuss are intended to cover all the aspects of care provided by GPs, the individual bullet points are not intended to be exhaustive. An excellent GP meets the ‘exemplary GP’ criteria all or nearly all of the time. A good GP meets most of the ‘exemplary GP’ criteria most of the time. A poor GP seriously or frequently exhibits the ‘unacceptable GP’ criteria. No GP can be expected to provide the care described under the headings of the ‘exemplary GP’ all the time – though he or she will aspire to that. Likewise, we recognise that good GPs will, on occasion, provide care that appears to be ‘unacceptable’ by these standards. Where standards are not met, it may not always be the fault of the doctor. Sometimes this may be due to lack of resources beyond the influence of the doctor, and GPs may find it difficult to meet patients’ increasing expectations in the absence of appropriate resources. In many settings, such as some RCGP assessments, trainer accreditation, clinical audit and GP appraisal, aspiration to higher standards of care are sought and encouraged. Other forms of evaluation, such as revalidation, expect acceptable standards of practice to be demonstrated. The RCGP will work with the GMC and other royal colleges to define how ‘acceptable standards’ can be evaluated for revalidation.