Professionalism and Professional Standards for Doctors
CPD-AccreditedCertified byThe CPD Certification Service, UK
Remediation · General Medical Council CPD Certified
Professionalism and Professional Standards for Doctors
Facing a GMC complaint, fitness to practise investigation or MPTS hearing? Start here. A CPD-certified remediation course for Doctors at every grade. Written for allegations about professional boundaries, consent and communication, record keeping, probity and dishonesty, social media conduct and duty of candour — built on Good medical practice as revised in 2024.
Who this course is for
Doctors at any stage of a concern — or before one arises.
You have just had a letter
A complaint, concern or fitness to practise investigation has been raised and you need to respond. Start here, and start now — evidence built early always reads better than evidence assembled the week before a deadline.
You are preparing your response
You are writing to the GMC, or working with your medical defence organisation, and need documented CPD and written reflection to put behind what you say.
Your case is going further
The matter is heading towards an Interim Orders Tribunal or an MPTS hearing, and you need to show sustained change rather than good intentions.
You are waiting, and the file is quiet
The period between the letter and any decision is the most valuable thing you have. It is what a tribunal later reads as the difference between engaging early and assembling evidence at the last minute.
Nothing has been raised
You want your practice to stand up to scrutiny, and verifiable CPD for your appraisal folder at the same time.
The concerns this course speaks to
Complaints about doctors cluster into a small number of areas. These are the ones this course works through, and the ones most often cited when a concern reaches the General Medical Council.
Professional boundaries
Boundaries with patients, those close to them and colleagues, dual relationships, and the absolute prohibition on pursuing sexual or emotional relationships with patients.
Consent and communication
Supporting patients to make decisions, sharing information they can actually use, chaperones, explaining risk, and communication patients later say they did not understand.
Record keeping and documentation
Recording your work clearly, accurately and legibly, and why poor records so often turn a defensible complaint into an indefensible one.
Probity, honesty and dishonesty
Integrity in claims about yourself, conflicts of interest, cooperating with investigations, and allegations of dishonesty — the category the GMC treats most seriously.
Social media and digital conduct
What you post, patient contact through personal accounts, and the blurring of professional and personal online — now addressed directly in the standards.
Duty of candour and adverse events
Being open when something goes wrong, apologising properly, and the difference between explaining and defending.
What the course covers
Six sections and 21 lessons, with a post-course assessment at the finish.
Overview of professionalism
Defining professionalism in medical practice, why it matters, and the GMC's role in setting and upholding standards.
Core principles
Eight lessons: patient-centred care, integrity and honesty, accountability and responsibility, confidentiality and privacy, effective communication, respect and dignity, teamwork and collaboration, and reflective practice.
Good medical practice (2024)
The four domains as revised in 2024, the 101 numbered paragraphs, and what changed from the 2013 edition, including where patient safety moved to.
Professional boundaries and ethical conduct
Understanding boundaries with patients and colleagues, and the GMC's own guidance on where the lines sit.
Breaches, consequences and remediation
What a breach looks like, the GMC's regulatory response, Interim Orders Tribunals, MPTS hearings, and the practical steps remediation involves.
Conclusion and assessment
Key takeaways, followed by a post-course assessment. Your certificate is issued on completion.
How this helps if a concern has been raised
Cite the paragraph, not professionalism in general
Good medical practice runs to 101 numbered paragraphs across four domains, and a decision maker reading your case will have in mind the paragraph the concern actually engages. A response that names that paragraph and answers it directly reads very differently from one written in general terms about professionalism. That is also why the current edition matters: the guidance was revised on 30 January 2024, and a reflection organised around the retired 2013 domains answers a framework nobody is applying any more.
The other thing to get right is the order. Insight comes first, then reflection as its written record, then remediation as the evidence. A response that supplies remediation without insight is a stack of certificates; one that supplies insight without remediation is an account. Tribunals say so routinely, and they say it about responses that were otherwise perfectly sincere. The period between the first letter and any decision is the most valuable thing you have, and what you do with it is visible afterwards.
On completion you receive a certificate recording the course title, the CPD hours and the date — which, with your own written reflection, is suitable for inclusion in a remediation portfolio, an appraisal folder or a revalidation submission. For the wider picture see GMC remediation courses.
Read the GMC’s own guidance Good medical practice ↗ Fitness to practise explained ↗ How we investigate concerns ↗ Supporting information for revalidation ↗
Ready to start? Written for doctors at every grade. Instant access, 2 CPD hours, certificate on completion.
Buy this course — £79.00Who wrote it
Course facilitator and author, Probity & Ethics
Dr Iqbal has designed and delivered ethics, probity and professionalism training for UK healthcare professionals since 2020, working with registrants of all nine UK healthcare regulators, online and face to face. He combines clinical practice with formal postgraduate training in healthcare law and ethics.
MBBS · MRCS · MRCGP · Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Law and Ethics, University of Dundee
Written and reviewed by Dr Shehzad Iqbal. Last reviewed August 2026.
What are the four domains of Good medical practice 2024?
Good medical practice was revised on 30 January 2024, replacing the 2013 edition. Its 101 numbered paragraphs sit across four domains: Knowledge, skills and development (1–15), Patients, partnership and communication (16–47), Colleagues, culture and safety (48–80) and Trust and professionalism (81–101).
The GMC renamed and reorganised the domains, and patient safety no longer has a domain of its own — it sits inside Colleagues, culture and safety, alongside workplace culture. That has a direct consequence for how you write: cite the paragraph the concern actually engages. A reflection organised around the retired 2013 domains answers a framework nobody is applying any more.
What these words mean
The terms the GMC uses about a concern, and what each one means in practice.
Good medical practice
The GMC's core professional standards, revised on 30 January 2024 and replacing the 2013 edition. 101 numbered paragraphs across four domains, and the framework against which a concern about a doctor is assessed.
The four domains
Knowledge, skills and development; Patients, partnership and communication; Colleagues, culture and safety; and Trust and professionalism. Patient safety no longer has a domain of its own — it sits within Colleagues, culture and safety, alongside workplace culture.
Fitness to practise
Whether your knowledge, skills, conduct and health currently allow you to practise safely and maintain public confidence. The GMC investigates a concern only where a doctor's ability to practise safely, or public confidence in doctors, may be at risk.
Interim order
A restriction placed on registration while a case is still running, imposed by an Interim Orders Tribunal where that is needed to protect patients or public confidence. It can suspend or attach conditions to your practice, and it is a protective step rather than a finding that anything is proved.
MPTS
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, which runs hearings separately from the GMC's investigation arm. A tribunal decides the facts, then whether fitness to practise is impaired, then what sanction if any is appropriate.
Revalidation
The process through which licensed doctors demonstrate they remain up to date and fit to practise, supported by annual appraisal, with a recommendation made to the GMC by a responsible officer.
Insight
Understanding what went wrong, why it happened, and the effect it had on patients, colleagues and public confidence in the profession. The element most often described as lacking.
Remediation
The concrete steps taken so the same thing does not happen again — training, supervision, changes to how you work — together with evidence that they happened and have been sustained.
Good medical practice changed on 30 January 2024
The four domains as they now stand, with the paragraph ranges. If your understanding predates 2024, the headings you are working from no longer exist.
Knowledge, skills and development
Paragraphs 1–15. Being competent, providing good clinical care, offering remote consultations, and maintaining, developing and improving your performance.
Patients, partnership and communication
Paragraphs 16–47. Treating patients fairly and with kindness, courtesy and respect; supporting them to make decisions; sharing information they can use; and being open if things go wrong.
Colleagues, culture and safety
Paragraphs 48–80. Treating colleagues with kindness, courtesy and respect; contributing to a positive working and training environment; delegating safely; keeping patients safe and responding to safety risks.
Trust and professionalism
Paragraphs 81–101. Acting with honesty and integrity, communicating as a medical professional including online, and maintaining the trust patients and the public place in the profession.
The three things a regulator looks for
Named in almost every decision, in this order. A response that supplies only the first is incomplete.
Insight
Understanding what went wrong, why it happened, and the effect it had on patients, colleagues and public confidence in the profession. It is the element most often described as lacking.
Reflection
Setting that understanding down honestly and in your own words, including what you would do differently and what you have already changed. Reflection is the written record of insight.
Remediation
The concrete steps taken so the same thing does not happen again — training, supervision, changes to how you work — together with evidence that they happened.
The paragraphs a GMC case usually turns on
Read off Good medical practice itself. Find the one your concern engages, quote it by number, and answer it directly — that is what turns an account into a response.
86 — Professional boundaries
You must not act in a sexual way towards patients, or use your professional position to pursue a sexual or improper emotional relationship with a patient or someone close to them. The detailed guidance is Maintaining personal and professional boundaries.
56 and 57 — Behaviour towards colleagues
You must not abuse, discriminate against, bully or harass anyone based on their personal characteristics or for any other reason; and you must not act in a sexual way towards colleagues with the effect or purpose of causing offence, embarrassment, humiliation or distress.
58 and 59 — Witnessing it, and leading
If you witness those behaviours you should act. If you hold a formal leadership or management role and you witness or are told about them, you must act: make sure they are adequately addressed, that people are supported, and that concerns are dealt with promptly and escalated where necessary.
69 to 71 — Records
Formal records of your work, including patients' records, must be clear, accurate, contemporaneous and legible — made at the time or as soon as possible afterwards. Paragraph 70 lists what a record should usually contain; 71 covers keeping them securely.
81 to 84 — Honesty and integrity
Your conduct must justify patients' trust in you and the public's trust in the profession. You must always be honest about your experience, qualifications and current role, give your registered name or GMC reference number when asked, and be honest in financial and commercial dealings.
88 to 90 — Communicating, including online
All professional communication must be honest, trustworthy and confidential. Information you communicate must be accurate and not misleading: check it, do not leave out relevant information, do not minimise risks of harm, do not present opinion as established fact. Communicating publicly, including on social media or when advertising or endorsing, adds a duty to declare conflicts and not to exploit vulnerability or lack of medical knowledge.
94 to 96 — Conflicts of interest and gifts
You must not allow interests to affect, or be seen to affect, how you propose, provide or prescribe treatment, refer patients or commission services; you must be open about a conflict and be prepared to exclude yourself from decision making; and you must not ask for or accept incentive payments, gifts or hospitality that may affect, or be seen to affect, those decisions.
98 — Cooperating with investigations
To maintain patient safety you must cooperate with formal inquiries, patient safety investigations and complaints procedures. You must provide all relevant information and be open and honest.
99 — Telling the GMC, without delay
Anywhere in the world: a caution or equivalent accepted from a prosecuting authority, being charged with a criminal offence, being found guilty of one, criticism by an official inquiry, or a finding against your registration by another professional body.
100 and 101 — Suspension elsewhere, and indemnity
If you are suspended from a healthcare role or have restrictions placed on your practice, you must without delay tell any organisation you do medical work for and any patients you see independently of them. You must also hold insurance or indemnity covering the full scope of your practice.
Domain 2 — Being open if things go wrong
The candour duty sits in the final section of Domain 2, Patients, partnership and communication, alongside supporting patients to make decisions and sharing information with them. If your concern is about candour or consent, that is the part of the guidance to read and cite.
What happens after a concern reaches the GMC
Set out by the GMC on its own site. Knowing which stage you are at tells you what your response has to do, and how much time you have to build the evidence behind it.
Deciding whether to investigate
Not every concern becomes an investigation. The GMC states that it investigates only where a doctor's ability to practise safely, or public confidence in doctors, may be at risk.
Opening an investigation
You are told that an investigation has been opened and what it is about. This is the point to contact your medical defence organisation, and the point at which evidence of insight and remediation starts to be worth building.
The investigation itself
Evidence is gathered, which can include records, statements and, where relevant, expert or performance assessment. You are given the opportunity to respond in writing, and what you write is the part of the file that speaks for you.
The decision
Senior decision makers consider the case and decide what happens next: closing it, concluding it without a hearing, or referring it to a tribunal. Evidence of insight, reflection and remediation is read at this stage, not invented afterwards.
Interim restrictions, if they are needed
Separately and at any stage, an Interim Orders Tribunal can restrict or suspend registration while the case continues, where that is needed to protect patients or public confidence. It is protective, not a finding.
A tribunal hearing, if the case is referred
Hearings are run by the MPTS, independently of the GMC's investigation arm. A tribunal decides the facts, then whether fitness to practise is impaired, then what sanction if any is appropriate.
Afterwards
Where a sanction or undertakings are in place, compliance is monitored, and at review the question becomes what has changed since. Sustained, evidenced change is what a reviewing tribunal is looking for.
Every stage of a medical career
Good medical practice applies from your first day on the register to your last, and so does this course. Whatever your grade, if a concern has been raised it supports you in building the insight, reflection and remediation your response will need.
Foundation doctors
Specialty and core trainees
SAS and locally employed doctors
General practitioners
Hospital consultants
Locum and independent-sector doctors
Senior medical students
Frequently asked questions
Is it based on the current Good medical practice, or the old one?
The current one. Good medical practice was revised on 30 January 2024, replacing the 2013 edition. The four domains were renamed and reorganised, and patient safety moved out of a domain of its own into Colleagues, culture and safety. The page and the course both work to the current version. A reflection organised around the retired 2013 domains answers a framework nobody is applying any more.
How should I cite it in my written response?
By paragraph number. Good medical practice runs to 101 numbered paragraphs across the four domains, and a case examiner will cite the paragraph the concern actually engages. A response that quotes that paragraph and addresses it directly reads very differently from one written in general terms about professionalism. Find the paragraph, name it, and answer it.
Who is this course written for?
Doctors at every grade — foundation doctors, core and specialty trainees, SAS and locally employed doctors, general practitioners, hospital consultants, and locum and independent-sector doctors — together with senior medical students. Good medical practice applies from your first day on the register to your last, and so does the course.
What actually happens after a concern reaches the GMC?
The GMC first decides whether to investigate at all, and says it does so only where a doctor's ability to practise safely, or public confidence in doctors, may be at risk. If an investigation is opened you are told what it is about, evidence is gathered, and you are given the opportunity to respond in writing. Senior decision makers then consider the case and decide whether to close it, conclude it without a hearing, or refer it to a tribunal. Hearings are run by the MPTS, independently of the investigation arm, and decide the facts, then impairment, then sanction.
Do I have to tell the GMC about a criminal charge or a suspension elsewhere?
Yes, and without delay. Paragraph 99 of Good medical practice requires you to tell the GMC if, anywhere in the world, you accept a caution or equivalent from a prosecuting authority, are charged with a criminal offence, are found guilty of one, are criticised by an official inquiry, or another professional body makes a finding against your registration. Paragraph 100 adds that if you are suspended from a healthcare role, or have restrictions placed on your practice, you must without delay tell any organisation you do medical work for and any patients you see independently of them. The duty is separate from whatever that other body is doing, and failing to declare is treated far more seriously than the matter being declared.
Can I keep working while a GMC investigation is running?
Usually, yes. Most investigations run without any restriction on practice. Separately, and at any stage, the GMC can refer a case to an Interim Orders Tribunal, which can suspend registration or attach conditions to it while the case continues, where that is needed to protect patients or public confidence. An interim order is a protective measure and not a finding that anything has been proved. If you are notified of one, contact your defence organisation immediately.
Does this count towards my CPD?
Yes. It is certified CPD and the certificate records the course title, the hours and the date, which is what makes it usable in your appraisal folder, a revalidation portfolio or a response to the GMC. What carries the weight is not the certificate but the reflection you attach to it, written against the paragraph of Good medical practice the concern actually engages.
Is this course approved or endorsed by the GMC?
No. The GMC does not approve, accredit or endorse CPD courses from any provider, including us, and it does not keep an approved list. It sets the standards and you choose activity that helps you meet them. This course is certified by The CPD Certification Service, an independent accreditation body, under Provider No. 13197.
Will completing this course resolve my case?
No. No course, from us or from anyone else, determines the outcome of a GMC matter. What a course can do is help you build the insight and reflection your response needs, and give you a verifiable certificate to evidence it. Your medical defence organisation or a specialist regulatory adviser should advise on your own case.
I have interim conditions or a suspension — is this still worth doing?
Yes, and arguably more so. Where an interim order is in place, the question at review is what has changed since. Verifiable CPD completed while the order is running, reflected on in writing and set alongside supervisor feedback, is one of the clearest ways to show the trajectory a tribunal is looking for.
How long does it take?
It runs to 2 CPD hours across six sections and 21 lessons, with a post-course assessment at the end. It is self-paced, and you can stop, resume and return to it as often as you like.
Can I use it for my appraisal?
Yes. The certificate records the course title, the CPD hours and the date, and sits equally well in your appraisal folder, your revalidation portfolio or a response to the GMC. One course reflected on properly is worth more than a list of certificates.
Is it “fitness to practise” or “fitness to practice”?
Both are in use. In British English practise is the verb and practice is the noun, so the GMC and the other regulators write fitness to practise, and this page follows them. Most people searching for help type fitness to practice, and plenty of professional bodies use that spelling too. They mean the same thing, and nothing turns on which you use in your own response.
Can I buy more than one course?
Yes. Our Bulk Buy offer covers any 10 courses and works out considerably cheaper per course. Allegations rarely arrive alone — professionalism, communication, records and probity usually feature in the same letter — so a bundle is usually the better answer to a real case.
Courses that work alongside this one
The ethics pair to this course: how a decision was reached, where this one covers how you conducted yourself.
The element assessed in almost every case, whatever the allegation, and the one most often described as lacking.
How to write reflection that reads as understanding rather than regret, in your own words.
Turning insight into concrete, evidenced change that a tribunal can see actually happened.
The forward-looking half of remediation: what you have put in place so it cannot happen again.
What fitness to practise means, how the process works, and what is being assessed at each stage.
Restoring confidence after a concern — with patients, with colleagues and with the regulator.
This course. Conduct, boundaries, records, probity and candour under Good medical practice 2024 — and the evidenced remediation that answers a GMC concern.
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