AvMA calls for amendments to the GMC’s Duty of Candour
- Nov 14, 2014
- EmmaArnold
Action Against Medical Accidents (AvMA) has published its draft response to the General Medical Council (GMC) and Nursing and Midwifery Council’s(NMC) draft guidance on the professional Duty of Candour.
The charity calls for the consultation to be amended if they want the Duty of Candour to be effective and call for everyone to support its view for a breakthrough.
AvMA has called on all stakeholders to respond to the consultation similarly in order to ensure it is fit for purpose after the charity has long campaigned for these guidelines.
Peter Walsh, Chief Executive of AvMA, said: “We have not fought so long and hard for the Duty of Candour to see its effectiveness limited by inadequate implementation and regulation. The GMC and NMC have to be seen to be taking this more seriously than they have done in the past.”
AvMA still do not believe the Duty of Candour goes far enough to protect patients from ‘cover-ups’ similar to those seen at the Mid Staffordshire Hospital.
What is urgently needed, according to AvMA is an assurance that the regulators will change the way they promote and enforce these guidelines.
AvMA also calls for the Duty of Candour to be applied to situations of potential harm, not just actual harm as well as system faults, not just human errors.