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<p>It is the responsibility of the individual National Health Service trust or NHS
foundation trusts to ensure that patients are treated by suitably qualified staff.</p><p>
</p><p>The Department encourages patients to make an informed decision before having
medical operations. As part of this, patients can ask to have information on the clinical
staff that will be conducting any medical operation and the Department would expect
that the trust should provide this information to them.</p><p> </p><p>The NHS Constitution
sets out patients' rights when using NHS services, these include:</p><p> </p><p>-
The right to be treated with a professional standard of care, by appropriately qualified
and experienced staff, in a properly approved or registered organisation that meets
required levels of safety and quality; and</p><p>- The right to be involved in discussions
and decisions about your health and care, including your end of life care, and to
be given information to enable you to do this. Where appropriate this right includes
your family and carers.</p><p> </p><p>One of the Care Quality Commission's (CQC) core
16 quality and safety standards, is that providers must ensure that those carrying
on a regulated activity, such as medical operations, must have the qualifications,
skills and experience necessary for the work to be performed. The CQC can take action
against healthcare providers if they are concerned about them employing inappropriately
qualified staff.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, the General Medical Council (GMC) holds
the central registers of doctors' qualifications. The medical register shows who is
properly qualified to practice medicine, whilst the specialist register shows doctors
who have completed specialist training, including surgical training. Patients may
visit the GMC website to search the Medical Register online.</p><p> </p><p>On patient
consent, the GMC's guidance, <em>Consent: patients and doctors making decisions together</em>
states patients must be provided with the information they have requested on:</p><p>
</p><p>“the people who will be mainly responsible for and involved in their care,
what their roles are, and to what extent students may be involved.”</p><p> </p><p>This
means that as part of the consent process, doctors are expected to give honest answers
to any questions from patients, including questions about their qualifications to
carry out the particular procedure in question. This is specifically expressed in
the GMC's document, <em>Good Medical Practice, </em>paragraph 66, where it says“You
must always be honest about your experience, qualifications and current role.”</p><p>
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