A Summary Of Candour

Any patient harmed by the provision of a healthcare service is informed of the fact and an appropriate remedy offered, regardless of whether a complaint has been made or question asked about it. This is how the term “candour” is defined by Robert Francis in his report (1). GMC defines the professional duty of candour as openness and honesty when things go wrong (2). This is applicable not only to patients but also to colleagues, employers and regulators. In a profession as stressful as medicine where doctors and other healthcare professionals are entrusted with the provision of care to people, it is vital for the care givers to be completely honest with their patients, especially when things wrong. It is not an easy task and doctors hesitate to do so due to a number of reasons such as the fact that doctors see themselves as solely benevolent and do not appreciate that they may be sources

It is true that as medical students we may never have to make decisions regarding the treatment plan of patients and that we will always be supervised when carrying out procedures. The chances of inflicting harm on patients is quite slim as a result of this but in the rare cases that it happens we should abide the duty of candour and inform our supervisors immediately. Since the role of a medical student is quite trivial in a multi disciplinary it is often the responsibility of the team leader to inform the patient of the error (4). When working in groups in medical school if we make a mistake or fail to do something that was expected of us to do we must not hesitate to own up to it. These are the situations in which we can develop the quality of candour before walking in to clinics and hospitals as