Self-declarations

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Health statement

• A statement of health is a declaration that the doctor accepts their professional obligations about their personal health under Good medical practice.

Guidance:

• Registration with GP outside their family and they should not treat themselves
• Immunisation
• Consult a suitably qualified colleague if they have a serious condition that could pose a risk to patients

A health statement is required in each appraisal, in which the doctor accepts their professional obligation - under good medical practice - regarding their own health.  These discussions would include whether the doctor is registered with a GP outside their family; and, should any personal health problems arise, they would consult their GP or any other suitably qualified colleague, rather than self-medicating.

You may also want to discuss the requirement for having regular immunisations, for example, regular flu jabs and Hepatitis B injections.

For more information, please check the GMP 2024: Managing risks posed by your health

Probity statement

• Required for each appraisal.
• Probity is at the heart of medical professionalism and means being honest and trustworthy and acting with integrity.
• Not providing honest and accurate information required for the doctor’s appraisal will raise a question about their probity.
• A statement of probity is a declaration that doctors accept the professional obligations placed on them in Good Medical Practice in relation to probity.

A probity statement is also required for each appraisal.  The Good Medical Practice provides many details around probity; but for the purposes of appraisal, the kind of things that you might discuss could include:

• Your approach to research; or
• How you manage the legal requirement for insurance or indemnity; also
• Consider in what ways you are honest and trustworthy;
• Reflect on any financial and commercial dealings, and
• Ensure you manage any potential conflicts of interests.

Compliments and complaints

• To identify areas of good practice, strengths and what doctors do well.
• To identify areas for improvement, lessons learned and any changes to be made as a result.
• To demonstrate they value patients’ and others’ concerns and comments about their work by making changes as a result of the feedback they have received.

Compliments and complaints should be seen as another type of feedback. 

The important thing to focus on how you have dealt with the complaint rather than focusing on numbers. 

For example, what have you learned from it?  How has it influenced your practice?  What have you found that you are doing really well in, and that you are going to keep doing?  And what have you changed?  What should you change?

If you have not been involved in any complaints, you would be expected to make a statement to that effect - either about you or your team - in the given appraisal period.

You could expand on how you are practising in order to try and avoid complaints in the first place.  Or, are you aware of the protocols if involved in a complaint?

For more information, please check the GMP 2024: Being open if things go wrong.

This page was last updated on: 21/11/2024