The General Medical Council is the independent regulator for doctors in the UK. Our statutory purpose is to protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the public by ensuring proper standards in the practice of medicine.
The law gives us four main functions under the Medical Act 1983:
· keeping up-to-date registers of qualified doctors
· fostering good medical practice
· promoting high standards of medical education and training
· dealing firmly and fairly with doctors whose fitness to practise is in doubt.
Doctors who wish to practice medicine in the UK must be registered with the GMC and, in most cases, hold a licence to practise. We give guidance to doctors on the principles of good practice and the standards we expect them to meet. Serious or persistent failure to follow the guidance will put a doctor_s registration at risk.
Private healthcare providers must also be registered with the Care Quality Commission (www.cqc.org.uk), the independent regulator of health and social care in the UK.
We are not in a position to advise doctors about the suitability or otherwise of particular treatments as our remit does not extend to collecting, analysing or disseminating clinical information. We do not therefore, produce clinical guidance.
However, we expect doctors to follow the advice in Good Medical Practice, our core guidance for doctors, which makes clear that when providing care, doctors must prescribe drugs or treatment only when they have adequate knowledge of the patient_s health, and are satisfied that the drugs or treatment serve the patient_s needs and provide effective treatments based on the best available evidence (paragraph 3(b) and (c)).
We also advise doctors that they must keep their knowledge and skills up to date throughout their working lives and that they should be familiar with relevant guidelines and developments that affect their work. This would include keeping up to date with evidence about the effectiveness of relevant medical treatments. Information about the effectiveness of medical treatments, and the risks and benefits attaching to them, is available from a wide range of sources including government health departments and regulatory agencies, the medical royal colleges, independent organisations such as the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), medical research journals and other publications.
Doctors must also obtain patient_s consent (or in the case of young children, usually the consent of a parent or parents) before providing any medical treatment. When seeking consent, doctors must give patients the information they want or need so that they can make an informed decision about whether to consent. In our guidance booklet, Consent: patients and doctors making decisions together we set out the information that patients are likely to want or need to know. This includes information about:
· The purpose of any proposed investigation or treatment and what it will involve
· The potential benefits, risks and burdens, and the likelihood of success, for each option
· Whether a proposed investigation or treatment is part of a research programme or is an innovative treatment designed specifically for their benefit
· Their right to seek a second opinion.
There are times when there may be uncertainty about the effectiveness of particular treatments or whether a particular treatment is better than another. In the absence of any definite research or audit evidence, doctors must use their clinical judgement, and the best available evidence, to make decisions about whether the treatment is appropriate for a particular patient.
While we do not require doctors to only provide evidence based treatments to patients, they must be satisfied that any treatment that they provide is in the patient_s best interests. This will generally mean that any known risks of the treatment are outweighed by the potential benefits to the patient. Doctors must always be prepared to explain and justify their actions or decisions including their decisions about treatment for patients.
In addition, Good Medical Practice also makes clear that doctors must not make unjustifiable claims about the quality or outcomes of their services in any information they provide to treatments and it must not offer guarantees of cures, nor exploit patient_s vulnerability or lack of medical knowledge. They must not put pressure on patients to use a service, for example by arousing ill-founded fears for their future health (paragraph 60-62). Nor must they put pressure on patients to accept private treatment (paragraph 72(e)).
I hope that this is helpful in explaining our role and the guidance we expect doctors to follow.
Kind Regards
Suzanne
Suzanne Wood
Policy Adviser
Standards & Ethics Section
The HPC regulates orthotists within the UK. Only
someone who is registered with us can practice as an orthotist or use the
protected title 'orthotist'. We set standards which our registrants have to
meet, including the standards of conduct, performance and ethics (SCPE).
One of the standards within the SCPE says:
"Any advertising you do in relation to your professional activities must be
accurate. Advertisements must not be misleading, false, unfair or
exaggerated. In particular, you should not claim your personal skills,
equipment or facilities are better than anyone else’s, unless you can prove
this is true.
If you are involved in advertising or promoting any product or service, you
must make sure that you use your knowledge, skills and experience in an
accurate and responsible way. You must not make or support unjustifiable
statements relating to particular products. Any potential financial reward
should not play a part in the advice or recommendations of products and
services you give."
The standards of conduct, performance, and ethics can be found here on our
website:
http://www.hpc-uk.org/aboutregistration/standards/standardsofconductperformanceandethics/
.
Anyone registered as an orthotist would have to meet this standard and we
could take action against them if they were not meeting the standard. So,
if an orthotist was advertising a particular treatment they should make
sure that their advertising was not misleading, false, unfair or
exaggerated. Although there is no specific statement about advertising
which went against established guidance, such as that from the Department
of Health, the general principles within the standard could still be
applied to this situation. The orthotist advertising the treatment would
need to demonstrate that the treatment was appropriate for the conditions
it was being advertised for. In addition, they would also need to
demonstrate that the treatment was appropriate for any particular patient
that they offered it to. If you have concerns that the orthotist is making
false advertising claims, you can raise those concerns with our fitness to
practise department: http://www.hpc-uk.org/complaints/.
Although we regulate individual orthotists, we do not regulate the
provision of services, in this case, the companies themselves. If you have
concerns about false or misleading advertising being undertaken by the
companies, you can contact the Advertising Standards Authority:
I hope that this answers your question but if you need anything further
please get in touch.
Best wishes,
Charlotte Urwin
Policy Manager
Policy & Standards department
Health Professions Council
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