18. Abusing your professional position

You must not abuse your patients’ trust. You must not, for example:
• use your position to establish improper personal relationships with
patients or their close relatives;
• put pressure on your patients to give or lend money or other
benefits to you or other people;
•improperly disclose or misuse confidential information about
patients;
• give patients, or recommend to them, an investigation or treatment
which you know is not in their best interests;
• deliberately withhold appropriate investigation, treatment or referral;
• put pressure on patients to accept private treatment;
• enable anyone who is not registered with the GMC to carry out
tasks that require the knowledge and skills of a doctor.
GMC Good Medical Practice, paragraph 22

 The excellent GP
- does not abuse the trust that patients have in him or her
- is aware of the possibility of personal advantage accruing from a close clinical relationship, and avoids situations where personal and professional interests might be in conflict
- ensures that treatment is based on need and not inducements from third parties
- does not seek or accept financial rewards from patients outside the normal framework of professional fees
- takes care to keep information about patients confidential

The unacceptable GP
- exploits relationships with patients to his or her own advantage
- uses his or her position of professional trust with patients to his or her advantage, and has inappropriate financial or personal relationships with patients
- is careless with confidential information
- ignores the patient's best interests when deciding about treatment or referral