Which GMC Course for a Boundaries Concern With a Patient or a Colleague?

Written and reviewed by Dr Shehzad Iqbal, MBBS, MRCS, MRCGP, Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Law and Ethics · Updated 10 November 2026

Which boundaries concerns does this GMC course fit?

Good medical practice treats boundaries as running two ways, towards patients and towards colleagues, and this course follows both, including concerns that are not sexual in nature:

• a patient: over-familiar messages, contact outside work, a gift or a favour, or a dual relationship such as treating a friend, an employee or a business contact;
• a colleague: a comment, an image or contact that caused offence, a relationship with someone whose career you influence, favouritism or conduct described as bullying;
• undertakings or conditions that name professional behaviour or boundaries as an area to work on.

Unsure whether what happened was a crossing or a violation? Our guide to boundary crossing and boundary violation sets out the difference.

What Good medical practice says about boundaries with patients and colleagues

Good medical practice (2024), Domain 4, under Maintaining professional boundaries, says 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. Domain 3 covers colleagues: paragraph 48 asks for “kindness, courtesy and respect”, paragraph 56 rules out bullying and harassment, paragraph 57 rules out acting in a sexual way towards colleagues, and paragraph 58 says you should act if you witness these behaviours.

The GMC’s guidance Maintaining personal and professional boundaries adds the detail:

• no sexual or improper emotional relationship with a current patient (paragraph 9), or using the professional relationship to pursue someone close to them (paragraph 11);
• a relationship with a former patient may still be inappropriate, for example if you would be, or could be seen to be, abusing your professional position (paragraph 12);
• consensual relationships between colleagues are a private matter (paragraph 18), but large differences in power, and effects on a colleague’s career, are higher risk (paragraph 19).

The GMC does not use the term, but these situations, where a professional role and a personal one meet in the same person, are what the course calls dual relationships.

Where a boundaries course counts in a GMC investigation

The GMC’s fitness to practise guide (updated January 2025) asks whether there has been “a significant departure” from Good medical practice. At the end of the investigation, two case examiners, one medical and one non-medical, decide between no further action, a warning, undertakings and referral to a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing.

The GMC’s guidance Decisions on undertakings (updated November 2025) says undertakings are likely to be workable where the doctor has shown insight and is willing to remediate (paragraph 20), and that evidence of a commitment to improving your knowledge and skills shows you are willing and able to remediate (paragraph 31). A dated certificate on the subject of the concern, with a reflection on the effect on the patient or the colleague, is that evidence.

What the Ethical Boundaries course covers

Eight sections and 27 lessons, with a quiz after each of the first seven: boundaries with patients (power, vulnerability, dual relationships, gifts); boundaries with colleagues (favouritism, bullying, improper relationships, leadership); the pressures behind a breach; its consequences for each person involved; managing boundary challenges; and reflection and remediation, ending with an assessment and your certificate.

Professional Boundaries for Clinicians or Ethical Boundaries: which one?

• Ethical Boundaries with Patients and Colleagues: the wider view, for over-familiarity, gifts, favouritism, bullying or team conduct, with a patient or a colleague.
• Professional Boundaries for Clinicians: closer to the consultation, with intimate examinations, chaperones and the sexual boundary with a patient; our professional boundaries course for doctors guide maps it to the GMC’s paragraphs.
• Professionalism and Boundaries in Use of Social Media: where the concern began online, with a patient or a colleague.

Counting a boundaries course as GMC CPD

The GMC asks for CPD every year across the whole of your practice, sets no number of CPD points, and asks you to reflect on what you learned and how it helped your practice. The certificate records the title, 2 CPD hours and the date for your appraisal.

Our course for a boundaries concern, and for CPD

Courses that sit beside it

Bulk Buy covers the £79 courses: 3 for £200, 5 for £300, 10 for £500. Not sure what to take? Book a free 15-minute call or see which course do I need.

Guides that help

The CPD courses linked from this guide, Ethical Boundaries with Patients and Colleagues, Professional Boundaries for Clinicians, Professionalism and Boundaries in Use of Social Media and Module on Insight, are by Probity & Ethics, written by Dr Shehzad Iqbal, CPD certified and accredited by The CPD Certification Service (provider no. 13197) and offered since 2020.

Questions and answers