Doctors can be held accountable for what they say in private WhatsApp chats, GPs have been warned in new GMC guidance.
GMC’s updated Good Medical Practice comes into force from today, alongside new supplementary guidance on social media.
This states that the term ‘social media’ includes private messaging, such as WhatsApp, and advises doctors for the first time that ‘messages or other communications in private groups may also become public’.
‘We have a legal duty to investigate any concerns raised to us that reach our fitness to practise threshold,’ the document adds.
The GMC first unveiled plans for the first major changes to doctors’ practise requirements in a decade in August last year. This says Good Medical Practice, for the first time, taking a zero-tolerance approach to sexual harassment towards colleagues.
The new GMP also includes an explicit obligation for doctors to be ‘kind’, where before the GMP only referenced being polite and considerate.
GMC chief executive Charlie Massey said it ‘should be a catalyst for creating supportive workplaces’ and will ‘help guide medical professionals through the challenges they face today’.
He added: ‘Good Medical Practice is the most important document we publish, and the feedback we’ve received is clear: positive culture is a golden thread running throughout.
‘By focusing on compassionate, fair workplaces where people feel empowered to speak up, we lay a solid foundation for teamwork and ultimately, safer care for patients.’
In response to new social media guidance, Medical Defence Union (MDU) said it advises doctors to only post information on private WhatsApp groups and other messaging services if they would be happy for it to be made public.
Over the past three years, the Medical Defence Union (MDU) has fielded queries about social media from more than 300 healthcare professionals, a third of which wanted advice on their use of social media platforms or support dealing with a complaint after posting.
There have been ‘a number of cases’ where private communications were used in disciplinary hearings, according to the medical defence organisation.
MDU deputy head of advisory services Dr Catherine Wills said doctors are ‘increasingly’ seeking advice on social media use.
She said: ‘It can be a tricky area as doctors are expected to uphold professional standards when using social media and this extends to their private lives.
‘They can be held accountable for things they say, like or share in private messaging groups, even those that are not work related. Many are not aware of this.
‘Our advice is to carefully consider the private messaging groups you join and the information you post, like, share and comment on within them.
‘Think about how you would feel if a colleague or patient saw the chat, or if it was shared to a wider audience.’
When physician associates come under GMC regulation by the end of this year, the same guidance will apply to them.
READERS' COMMENTS [17]
Please note, only GPs are permitted to add comments to articles
CM needs to just go
They own you
The Thought Police of the Ministry of Medical Regulation. It’s 1984 again…In a parallel world, the GMC regulates doctors’ Silly Walks…
Should work both ways. Did unsuccessful CPR on 35 year old male while running 1/2 marathon. Needless to say it’s fair game for others (non-medical I believe) to put on social media it was a shoddy attempt & he should have survived.
Meanwhile vitriolic hate-based liars and anti-vaxxers peddle their sad diatribes on Twitter with hundreds of thousands of followers all vowing never to vaccinate their children and the GMC does nothing leaving individual practices to censor those individuals if they become aware of them
‘’By focusing on compassionate, fair workplaces where people feel empowered to speak up, we lay a solid foundation for teamwork and ultimately, safer care for patients.” So now the GMC join forces with the CQC and NHSE in pretending all is fine in the NHS, hoping to hypnotise us in the glare of their blinding gaslight. Primary Care in 2023 is the very opposite of compassionate toward patients, staff, and Partners. Our staff turnover has rocketed now Aldi is open nearby, so much for team-building, what team? As for patient safety, underfunding, dreadful access, and fragmentation of services has given us the most unsafe-for-patients NHS environment I can recall in 32 years. And will the CQC be kind? No. They will punch down on us with gleeful venom having been tasked with doing exactly that. What a load of crap.
PMs (Boris) and First Ministers of Scotland (Nicola S) are allowed to do official business on WhatsApp, delete the messages, tell make everyone else delete the messages, keep that info secret from the rest of government/ parliament/ public enquiry and face no sanction.
But doctors can be struck off for a message between friends on WhatsApp.
It is the WhatsApp messages of the GMC staff who make these ongoing menacing and threatening demands and their Myers Briggs personality assessments that require investigation in this increasingly sinister organisation in my opinion
Doctors -let continue to pay their private medical fees and ‘generous’ pension contributions via our forced subscriptions in this GMC ‘charity’ (better benefits than most charities!) so they can continue on a path where many of us object to their entire ethos and are rightly entitled to our opinion;
Corporate Governance Manager;
30 days holiday with the option to buy and sell more
A generous employer pension contribution of 15%
Access to a range of learning and development opportunities designed to support your ongoing progression
Hybrid and flexible working
Attractive salary that’s reviewed annually
Private medical insurance
Bike lockers and shower facilities
The GMC is a charity registered in England and Wales (1089278) and Scotland (SC037750)
All individuals are made equal….except doctors who have less rights and more responsibilities than anyone. The responsibilities increase in a system that is impossible to work in, the rights decrease as time goes on until they will be silenced completely. Wow. We wonder why the number of doctors is decreasing the uk? Also why we post annoymously?
Careful what we say on this forum old red nose likely watching with glass of Claret in hand…….
I remember how kind Massey was to Dr Bawa Garba
I suspect the GMC won’t accept ‘The BoJo defence’?
5000 messages mysteriously disappeared due to WhatsApp going down and when it came back up, all texts from the last back up forwards has disappeared?
It’s a pretty legit explanation… no?
Won’t be long before we have to submit our WhatsApp login details for reaccreditation.
1984 – Big brother is watching!
Agree with nearly all the comments here. Oppressive rules controls and working conditions with impossible and unrealistic expectations placed on us. Who decides what is kind or unkind?
Meanwhile openly anti-Semitic doctors are tolerated.