Charlotte Leslie – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2014-04-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information patients are entitled to as to whether a medical operation will be undertaken by a fully surgically qualified member of staff.
Dr Daniel Poulter
It is the responsibility of the individual National Health Service trust or NHS foundation trusts to ensure that patients are treated by suitably qualified staff.
The Department encourages patients to make an informed decision before having medical operations. As part of this, patients can ask to have information on the clinical staff that will be conducting any medical operation and the Department would expect that the trust should provide this information to them.
The NHS Constitution sets out patients’ rights when using NHS services, these include:
– The right to be treated with a professional standard of care, by appropriately qualified and experienced staff, in a properly approved or registered organisation that meets required levels of safety and quality; and
– The right to be involved in discussions and decisions about your health and care, including your end of life care, and to be given information to enable you to do this. Where appropriate this right includes your family and carers.
One of the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) core 16 quality and safety standards, is that providers must ensure that those carrying on a regulated activity, such as medical operations, must have the qualifications, skills and experience necessary for the work to be performed. The CQC can take action against healthcare providers if they are concerned about them employing inappropriately qualified staff.
In addition, the General Medical Council (GMC) holds the central registers of doctors’ qualifications. The medical register shows who is properly qualified to practice medicine, whilst the specialist register shows doctors who have completed specialist training, including surgical training. Patients may visit the GMC website to search the Medical Register online.
On patient consent, the GMC’s guidance, Consent: patients and doctors making decisions together states patients must be provided with the information they have requested on:
“the people who will be mainly responsible for and involved in their care, what their roles are, and to what extent students may be involved.”
This means that as part of the consent process, doctors are expected to give honest answers to any questions from patients, including questions about their qualifications to carry out the particular procedure in question. This is specifically expressed in the GMC’s document, Good Medical Practice, paragraph 66, where it says“You must always be honest about your experience, qualifications and current role.”
