1. What you are allowed to stay quiet about — and what you are not
This course
1 hour of verifiable CPD. Standalone. GDC Development Outcomes A and D. Related: Human Factors, Complaints Handling, Legal and Ethical, Safeguarding.
Suggested study time
- What a concern is — 18 min
- Inside the practice — 20 min
- Outside: GDC, CQC and others — 17 min
- Knowledge check — 5 min
GDC expectation
Registered professionals must put patients first. If you believe patients are at risk, or that a colleague’s conduct, health or performance is a danger, you are expected to take action — not to gossip, and not to wait until someone is harmed because it felt awkward.
Not every irritation is a GDC case
A late lunch rota is a management issue. A dentist routinely working without medical histories, ignoring a positive aspiration on a local anaesthetic in a medically complex patient, or asking a nurse to work outside scope, is a concern. Sexual harassment, racist abuse, and covering up a wrong-tooth extraction are concerns. Learn the difference so you do not cry wolf — and so you do not minimise the real thing.
Health of a colleague
Addiction, untreated mental illness, or a health problem that is affecting clinical work can be a patient-safety issue. It is still a person. Occupational health and a confidential internal route exist so you do not diagnose them in the kitchen.
Safeguarding
A child or adult at risk is not “raising concerns about the principal” in the same sense — use the safeguarding pathway (Level 1, and Level 2 if you are clinical). Do not sit on a disclosure because it is “awkward for the practice”.