Should I Do a GMC Documentation Course After a Records Concern?

Written and reviewed by Dr Shehzad Iqbal, MBBS, MRCS, MRCGP, Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Law and Ethics · Updated 7 November 2026

Should you do a documentation course after a GMC records concern?

It depends on what the concern says about your records. Read the GMC’s letter for the words it uses, then match:

• notes incomplete, late or hard to read: the documentation course on its own fits;
• a decision, a discussion with the patient or a plan not recorded: the documentation course fits, with a reflection on what was left out;
• an entry altered, backdated or written to look better: this is an honesty concern, so take the documentation course with the probity course;
• records shared or stored insecurely: the confidentiality course is the closer match.

What Good medical practice (2024) says about records

Domain 3 has a section headed “Recording your work clearly, accurately, and legibly”. Paragraph 69 says formal records must be clear, accurate, contemporaneous and legible, and defines contemporaneous as made at the time or as soon as possible afterwards. Paragraph 70 lists what a patient record should include:

1. relevant clinical findings;
2. drugs, investigations or treatments proposed, provided or prescribed;
3. information shared with the patient;
4. concerns or preferences the patient raised, and whether they were addressed;
5. reasonable adjustments and communication support preferences;
6. decisions and agreed actions, including decisions to take no action, and when they will be reviewed;
7. who made the record, and when.

Paragraph 71 covers storing records securely. For records outside the clinical notes, Domain 4, Communicating as a medical professional, says information must be accurate and not misleading, with no relevant facts left out, and paragraph 62 asks for accurate and fair references. How the other regulators word the same duty is set out in our record keeping course guide.

Why your records matter in a GMC investigation

The GMC’s guide Our fitness to practise processes names medical records among the evidence it gathers in an investigation, alongside witness statements and expert reports. Your notes are read twice: as evidence of what happened, and as a sample of how you keep records. A course and a fresh audit of your current notes speak to the second.

After the investigation, two case examiners, one medical and one non-medical, decide between no further action, a warning, undertakings and referral to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service. Undertakings can include further learning or supervision, so it helps to show you have already done the learning.

When to do it and what to send with it

Do the course before you send your comments to the GMC, which its guide says “may help us to resolve the case more quickly”. With your defence organisation’s advice, three things together show more than a certificate alone:

1. the dated certificate;
2. a reflection naming paragraph 69 or 70 and what was missing;
3. an audit of a sample of your recent notes against the paragraph 70 list, which Domain 1, paragraph 13(b), describes as reviewing your own work and acting on what you find.

Never change an existing entry in response to a concern. A correction must be a new, dated entry.

What the GMC documentation course covers

Eight sections: why documentation matters for safety and continuity of care; honesty, objectivity and accountability in what you write; note-keeping, recording treatment and correcting errors, including late entries; probity in forms and reports; records in regulatory processes and as evidence of remediation; what the regulators expect; breaches and remediation; and a closing assessment.

When a different course fits better

For an altered or backdated entry, add Probity for Healthcare Professionals, because the GMC will look at honesty as well as quality. For records disclosed or stored insecurely, Ensuring Confidentiality in Healthcare Practice is built around confidentiality, the subject of paragraph 71.

Counting a documentation course as CPD for GMC revalidation

The GMC asks for CPD every year across your whole practice, with reflection, and sets no points target. A records course with a notes audit is CPD you can bring to appraisal with or without a concern.

Our GMC documentation course for a records 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

This guide is part of our Professional Misconduct hub, which brings together every Probity & Ethics guide and course on the subject.

The CPD courses linked from this guide, Professionalism in Documentation for Healthcare Professionals, Probity for Healthcare Professionals, Ensuring Confidentiality in Healthcare Practice and Module on Reflection, 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