Favours, familiarity, gifts and personal relationships

General practice serves local communities. Staff may know patients as neighbours, relatives, school contacts, customers or friends. That familiarity can make it harder to keep professional boundaries.

The safest approach is to treat everyone fairly and protect confidentiality. Do not give anyone special access, view records out of curiosity, pass clinical information via personal channels or accept gifts that might influence care or access.

Boundary risks

• Booking friends into hidden or reserved slots.
• Looking up someone you know without a work reason.
• Discussing patient information outside work.
• Accepting gifts that feel linked to access or favours.
• Letting a familiar patient bypass the normal route.
• Using personal phones or accounts for practice messages.

Being kind to someone you know must not become special access, casual confidentiality or private messaging.

Gifts and Local Policy