Advice centre

Poor communication between doctors lies at the heart of many complaints, claims and disciplinary actions. Dr Mark Dinwoodie, consultant in medical education, explains the importance of maintaining good relationships with colleagues and communicating effectively with other health professionals

In this series we explore the key risk areas in general practice

Handover is a critical time when things can go wrong. Dr Pallavi Bradshaw, MPS medicolegal adviser, shares advice on what information should be handed over to the team coming on, while highlighting the importance of good communication.

Ask any final year medical student about their biggest worry about becoming a doctor and they will answer “on-calls”. Here is the advice we wish we’d had when we started doing on-calls.