The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) publish its response to the General Medical Council’s consultation on revising its standards of Good Medical Practice.
In its response, the PSA recognised that the GMP review “comes just ahead of significant changes for the General Medical Council (GMC), with the introduction of statutory regulation for Physician Associates and Anaesthesia Associates, and a new model of regulation underpinned by new legislation. It will be important to ensure that the new iteration of Good Medical Practice (GMP) supports both aspects of GMC reform.”
It continued:
It also comes at a time of changing social attitudes. We are pleased to see the GMC recognising that more can be done by registrants themselves to tackle all forms of ‘unfair discrimination’, inappropriate sexual behaviour between colleagues, and other behaviours that contribute to toxic workplace cultures. We found the Equality Impact Assessment helpful, and overall felt that there was a strong commitment to Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in this exercise.
We also welcome the renewed focus on partnership with patients and colleagues, and leadership skills that apply to all medical professionals. However, we thought that the guidance could be stronger on specific responsibilities for medical professionals in leadership roles to promote inclusive, open, learning cultures which has been a theme of many recent and past inquiries and reviews into major healthcare failings.
We felt the guidance could be stronger and clearer on the matter of social media use – an area that both professionals and panels can find difficult to navigate, particularly the distinction between use of social media in private as opposed to a professional capacity.
We also found that parts of the guidance relating to conflicts of interest could go further to respond to the findings of both the Cumberlege and Paterson reviews.
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