Advice library

Consent - assessing capacity in adults

There are specific legal frameworks in each jurisdiction of the UK to support the treatment of adult patients who lack capacity to consent for themselves

Safeguarding adults

Some adults may be unclear, unrealistic or ambivalent about their personal circumstances and it is incumbent upon healthcare professionals to work with those adults to understand what “being safe” means to them, and how that can be best achieved.

Recordings

There can be various reasons why a doctor or dentist would want to make a visual or audio recording of a patient consultation or procedure, such as for research or training purposes. However, it is important to respect ethical principles of consent and confidentiality in doing so.

Provision of medical reports

An overview of the rules around the provision of medical reports for employment, insurance or similar purposes.

GDPR - subject access requests

An overview of the rules around subject access requests under the GDPR

GDPR - privacy notices

A step-by-step guide to writing privacy notices

GDPR – general – core principles

Explore the core principles of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Doctors dealing with dental emergencies

At certain times of the year, such as school holidays, MDDUS sees an increase in the number of calls from doctors requesting advice on how to deal with patients attending for dental problems.

Confidentiality – adults with incapacity

It is a presumption that every adult patient has the mental capacity to make choices and decisions concerning the disclosure of their personal information, unless proved otherwise.

Apologies

Apologising when things go wrong is an essential part of practice and can assist in maintaining good patient relationships.