Doctors told not to communicate with patients via Facebook
December 3, 2009
Doctors are being advised that communication with their patients via social networking site Facebook is breach of the doctor/patient relationship. The Medical Defence Union (MDU) has issued guidelines as well as offered to help doctors make sure that they do not break their professional code of conduct by setting up their Facebook profiles so that patients cannot access them.
The MDU says that it has become aware of a number of cases where patients have tried to proposition doctors through their Facebook pages. One particular case which has come to light involved a female doctor who turned down one of her patient’s advances only to find him sending her messages through Facebook. He even used information garnered from the site to find out that his doctor’s favourite flowers were lilies and so sent a bunch to the surgery at which she worked.
The MDU says that doctors who are contacted by patients on social networking sites must not respond in any way even if it is just to politely decline a patient’s advances. MDU medico-legal adviser, Dr. Emma Cuzner says that because Facebook is not recognized as a professional way in which a doctor can communicate with a patient absolutely no correspondence should be entered in to.
Dr. Cuzner said that it was the duty of every doctor to uphold the trust of the public and that they could even face investigation by the General Medical Council if they were ever suspected of maintaining anything but the most professional of relationships with their patients.
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