Professional standards

Question 1

Sexual behaviour and your duty to report colleagues

Answer 1

Question 2

patient confidentiality4 when reporting your concerns

Answer 2

Question 3

Maintaining a professional boundary between you and your patient

Answer 3

Help and advice
15
If you are not sure whether you are (or could be seen to be) abusing your professional position, you should seek advice about your situation from an impartial colleague, your defence body or your medical associatio

Question 4

Intimate examinations

Answer 4

Intimate examinations of anaesthetised patients

Before you carry out an intimate examination on an anaesthetised patient, or supervise a student who intends to carry one out, you must make sure that the patient has given consent in advance, usually in writing

Question 5

Chaperones

Answer 5

Question 6

Doctors’ use of social media

Answer 6

If a patient contacts you about their care or other professional matters through your private profile, you should indicate that you cannot mix social and professional relationships and, where appropriate, direct them to your professional profile

Question 7

Children - capacity to consent

Answer 7

Question 8

Children and young people who lack the capacity to consent

Answer 8

Question 9

If a young person refuses treatment

Answer 9

Question 10

Research

Answer 10

Question 11

Sharing information without consent

Answer 11

Question 12

Accessing medical records by children/young people/parents

Answer 12

Question 13

Sexual activity - young childrend

Answer 13

You should usually share information about sexual activity involving children under 13, who are considered in law to be unable to consent. You should discuss a decision not to disclose with a named or designated doctor for child protection and record your decision and the reasons for it.

If a child or young person is involved in abusive or seriously harmful sexual activity, you must protect them by sharing relevant information with appropriate people or agencies, such as the police or social services, quickly and professionally.

Question 14

Contraception, abortion and sexually transmitted infections (STIs)

Answer 14

Question 15

Parents and parental responsibility

Answer 15

eople without parental responsibility, but who have care of a child, may do what is reasonable in all the circumstances of the case to safeguard or promote the child’s welfare. This may include step-parents, grandparents and childminders. You can rely on their consent if they are authorised by the parents. But you should make sure that their decisions are in line with those of the parents, particularly in relation to contentious or important decisions.

Question 16

Communicating with parents

Answer 16

Question 17

Confidentiality and sharing information

Answer 17

Question 18

Sharing information about those at risk

Answer 18

Following up your concerns
42 You should follow up your concerns and take them to the next level of
authority if you believe that the person or agency you told about your
concerns has not acted on them appropriately and a child or young
person is still at risk of, or is suffering, abuse or neglect.

Question 19

Responding to requests for information

Answer 19