Patients are welcome to record their own consultations with the healthcare professional that they have an appointment with. They can either record by audio or video. It is courteous, and it is surgery policy, that patients doing so, discuss this and, where possible, gain the agreement of, the healthcare professional BEFORE commencing any recording.
We ask that patients think very carefully before carrying out concealed recordings of surgery staff. Such behaviour will inevitably damage trust between the patient and the surgery and will not promote a positive therapeutic relationship. We ask that patients considering making a covert recording of a staff member consider how they themselves would feel if a member of the surgery made a concealed recording of them during a consultation or discussion. In such a situation, patients would feel rightly violated and the member of staff would face a serious disciplinary issue.
Accordingly: It is surgery policy that a covert recording of a member of staff is deemed as Unacceptable Behaviour. Patients found to be doing so will be asked to stop the recording and will receive a behaviour warning which may put at risk their registration with the surgery.
No one is permitted to use a recording device in the public areas of the surgery. To do so is deemed as Serious Unacceptable Behaviour, which may lead to removal from the surgery register. Patients have a reasonable expectation of privacy when they attend the surgery. Recorded audio and or images made in the public areas of the surgery, e.g. by the reception desk, may reveal personal and intimate information. Such images and audio (that may either be shared, uploaded, or otherwise stored) would cause a serious breach in a patient’s expectation of privacy.