Ms Katherine Gvozdenko1
1Monash University, Australia, 2University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
Biography:
Katherine is an incoming final year medical student at who has completed a Bachelor of Medical Science (Honours) at the University of Oxford. Co-supervised by Professor Dominic Wilkinson from University of Oxford and Professor Adrian Carter from Monash University, she is excited to harness her ethical skills in health policy.
Abstract:
In many countries, regulatory bodies uphold professional standards for health professionals. The UK’s General Medical Council takes seriously its duty to protect patient trust in doctors, leading to sanctions against doctors for actions outside their professional roles. Recent cases range from a junior doctor suspended for misusing a concession transport card to a retired general practitioner suspended for participating in a climate protest.
Such cases raise critical questions about expectations of medical professionals. Should governing bodies like the Medical Board of Australia impose sanctions for behaviour not directly related to patient care? Where should we draw the line for professional sanctions in legally wrongful actions, immoral but not unlawful activities, and civil disobedience?
This paper provides insights from a survey of the UK general public. We recruited 320 participants in a nationally representative sample using an online platform. The survey investigated public attitudes about the “trust and reputation of the medical profession” and how it’s impacted by doctor misconduct.
We presented participants with clinical vignettes detailing cases of doctor misconduct; varying sanction severity (warning to being struck off the medical register), moral infringement (for instance, dishonesty compared to rudeness), and location (inside the workplace or in the doctors’ private lives). We then asked questions about trust in the medical profession, appropriate punishments and impact on health-seeking behaviour.
I will present the survey results, compare them with existing evidence, and examine policy implications.
Presentation Slides PDF – Click here