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Welcome to Medical Protection’s guide to professionalism, a publication that takes a closer look at what it means to be a professional.

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.

The regulations on NHS complaints in Wales are designed to make complaints handling open and accountable, fair and proportionate, and patient-focused. The emphasis is on resolving concerns in a timely fashion, openly and honestly, and a philosophy of “investigate once, investigate well”.

Patients who are kept informed about their condition and are involved in deciding on the appropriate treatment are more likely to comply with the treatment you suggest, and less likely to complain if things go wrong.

The medical consultation is a challenge to both doctor and patient, whether in the community or in hospital. The need for more detailed discussions with patients, along with their increasing autonomy and right to make choices in relation to their clinical care and treatment, has affected the traditional role of the doctor-patient relationship. This has made maintaining appropriate professional boundaries in the doctor-patient consultation more challenging, however, the guidance from national and regulatory bodies is clear that it is always the health professional's responsibility to do so.

Dr W faces a regulatory hearing after a delayed diagnosis – find out how record-keeping helped the defence.

A disagreement between a specialty trainee and her consultant lies at the heart of a regulatory hearing following a patient’s death.

A patient undergoing a colonoscopy claims her modesty is disregarded during the procedure. What did Medical Protection do to tackle this allegation?

Mrs D presents to her GP Dr N with a long-standing lesion on her scalp. Dr N removes it but what has he missed?

Ophthalmologist Dr P receives a claim alleging poor consent and technique – but is that the real cause?

Two hospital doctors receive claims after a delayed cancer diagnosis, which Medical Protection eventually takes to trial.

Treatment of an itchy rash leads to a claim against GP Dr U, but was he negligent?

After a serious car crash, Dr C is called before an inquest – Medical Protection is called in to support.

Gross negligence manslaughter is a topical issue in healthcare, but cases against doctors are still comparatively rare. Dr John Jolly, head of member risk education and Dr Richard Stacey, head of policy and technical, look at a more common cause of criminal cases brought against members of Medical Protection: sexual assault.