The General Medical Council (GMC) has issued “key points” to explain its role and how it deals with concerns about the actions of doctors during protests, including when doctors have been found to have broken the law.

Writing on its website, the GMC wrote:

We recognise that some doctors may feel strongly about social or ethical issues such as climate change. It is understandable that recent cases have prompted questions around how our guidance applies to doctors taking part in protests or other forms of activism.

Setting out its position, the regulator said:

“Our guidance on personal beliefs and medical practice is clear – like all citizens, doctors are entitled to their political opinions and have the right to campaign on issues.

“However, Good medical practice domain 1 makes clear that doctors must follow the law. And doctors have a duty under Good medical practice domain 4 to tell us about any criminal charges, convictions or cautions.

“You can find more information in our guidance Reporting criminal and regulatory proceedings within and outside the UK

“Good medical practice also says that doctors must make sure their conduct justifies patients’ trust in them and the public’s trust in the profession. Doctors must therefore consider how their conduct might be perceived by members of the public and how this could impact confidence in the wider profession – even where the conduct takes place outside of their professional practice and they consider it to be principled action.”

UK Fitness to Practise News

In terms of dealing with fitness to practise concerns arising from protest action, the GMC explained:

“… the different types of relevant context at paragraphs 30-43 of our explanatory guidance What we mean by fitness to practise. These often relate to matters in the workplace that are outside a doctor’s control, such as their working environment, systems factors, or the values and interests of the organisation or team within which they work. It can also relate to certain very specific personal matters affecting the doctor and outside their control when the events happened, such as personal emergencies, bereavements and ill health.

“It would not include the nature of a protest that a doctor was taking part in when the events took place. Doctors may take part in a protest for a range of causes and we can’t take a view on the merits of specific causes or sanction illegal conduct in that context.”

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