New guidance on dealing with bad behaviour
Private doctors requiring advice to deal with bad behaviour from patients may find new guidance for NHS GP practices useful.
It sets out the type of inappropriate or unacceptable behaviour that could lead to a warning, or removal from the practice list.
An updated version of NHS England’s Primary Medical Care Policy and Guidance Manual (PGM) includes a new chapter on the types of behaviour by patients that could lead to further action.
The Medical Defence Union has backed a call in the guidance for practices to review their policies on unacceptable patient behaviours to ‘explicitly’ include positions on not tolerating any form of discrimination or harassment.
Dr Ellie Mein, MDU medico-legal adviser, said: ‘It is never acceptable for healthcare professionals to be abused in the course of their work and this guidance will go some way to reassuring practice teams . . . of the situations when action should be taken.’