GPFUQ #229 Do GPs need to be kind?
From 2024 the GMC's Good Medical Practice guidance requires doctors to be kind to patients and colleagues.
“At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou.
Kindness in a caring profession is important but difficult to judge. It is what a patient feels. We each have memories of past great kindness and daily experience of common unkindness. We value kindness. For thousands of years different traditions have advanced the same practical message about the basics of how to be kind. The principle of treating others as you want to be treated yourself is known as the Golden rule. This makes common kindness easy to self-judge. If we follow the rule, most of us can be kind to our patients and colleagues most of the time. Competent doctors must be able to cope with difficult problems. This includes choosing unpopular actions after sharing the decision-making process with well-informed patients. I may want a competent doctor more than a kind doctor but I really want a competent and kind doctor. The new GMC guidance to doctors be kind (as in the Golden rule) seems Good Medical Practice for the 21st century.
