Doctors in the UK have been warned that responding to patients who make advances to them on Facebook could seriously harm their career.
The London-based Medical Defence Union (MDU) said it was aware of cases where amorous patients have tried to proposition doctors through Facebook. It advises them that even turning down advances politely through the social networking site could mean stepping over the strict boundary defining acceptable doctor-patient relationships and potentially bring about a complaint to the General Medical Council, which regulates standards in the medical profession in the UK.
The warning comes in an article in the MDU Journal that cites the case of a 30-year-old man who sent his GP lilies because he knew from her Facebook site that they were her favorite flowers. He made a number of approaches to her, some of them on Facebook, in an attempt to persuade her to go out with him.
“The pitfalls posed to doctors using social networking sites by inadvertently breaching confidentiality or posting unprofessional content, such as photos, have been well documented. But doctors may be less prepared for patients using sites like Facebook to ask them out on a date,” said Emma Cutzner, the MDU’s medico-legal adviser.
“Some doctors have told the MDU they feel it would be rude not to reply, if only to politely refuse, but given that this is not a professional route of communication, any correspondence of this sort would clearly stray outside the doctor-patient relationship.”
In the anonymized case, the 30-year-old man who took a fancy to his GP had originally come to the surgery after a minor car accident. The doctor diagnosed minor whiplash and gave him painkillers and advice. The lilies arrived the following day, and after work the patient waited for the GP in the car park. He tried to give her a travel book and asked her to join him for a drink.
She told him she could not accept his gifts, but he continued to send her messages via Facebook. She contacted the MDU, who advised her not to respond to him on Facebook but to write him a formal letter explaining she could not have anything to do with him and ensure that only her colleagues treated him in the future.
Doctors could be accused of bringing their profession into disrepute if they post incautious photographs on a site where members of the public and their own patients could access them. They must also be very careful to guard patient confidentiality. There is a danger that lighthearted remarks about the people they have seen during the working day could lead to patients being identified.
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