GMC: Doctors to get new rules on their personal beliefs and work
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Quick Summary
Rules regarding ways doctors must keep their personal beliefs in check when treating patients are being updated by the General Medical Council.The regulator has launched a consultation1 on proposed changes to its personal beliefs and medical practice guidance,2 which was last fully updated in 2013.The GMC said it was updating the guidance to reflect legal, social, and cultural changes. Examples include the government’s recently published guidance on defining “anti-Muslim hostility”3 and debates over assisted dying legislation.The regulator said it wanted to allow doctors to practise in line with their beliefs and values, while respecting patients’ own beliefs and “maintaining good and safe care.”It follows cases such as that of Kent GP Richard Scott, who was given a formal warning by a medical practitioners tribunal in 2023 after telling a vulnerable young patient seeking mental health treatment that he needed to reconnect with God.4The GMC clarified that the guidance does not...