Advice centre

“Respect for the autonomous choices of persons runs as deep in common morality as any principle.” – TL Beauchamp and JF Childress, Principles of Biomedical Ethics (2001)

There is a certain ambiguity surrounding chaperones and what exactly their purpose is. Below are common questions that Medical Protection receives about chaperones.

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) has been a criminal offence in the UK since 1985 and the legislation was re-enacted in the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003. Five official reports on the subject have been published since November 2013 and MPS has produced this guidance for members.

Good medical records – whether electronic or handwritten – are essential for the continuity of care of your patients. Adequate medical records enable you or somebody else to reconstruct the essential parts of each patient contact without reference to memory. They should therefore be comprehensive enough to allow a colleague to carry on where you left off.

Certain circumstances can mean you are obliged to disclose information about a patient, even if you do not have their consent; under other circumstances, disclosure may be justifiable. This factsheet gives you further information about these circumstances.