Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance is provided to GPs on faith-sensitive medical care.

All United Kingdom registered doctors are expected to meet the professional standards set out in the General Medical Council’s Good Medical Practice. The standards cover personal beliefs and medical practice, and set out that in assessing a patient’s conditions and taking a history, doctors should take account of spiritual, religious, social, and cultural factors, as well as their clinical history and symptoms.

The training curriculum for postgraduate trainee doctors is set by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and has to meet the standards set by the General Medical Council. The RCGP curriculum includes content on ‘demonstrating the holistic mindset of a generalist medical practitioner’, which covers spirituality and cultural factors.