Prescribing for Family Members

• Best practice is don't do it
• If you do, ensure you make contemporaneous record and record the circumstances of why you did it

A small number of Wessex GPs have been contacted by the NHS Counter Fraud Service about prescriptions written for family members.  This is partly because treating family members is not ideal but also because a common way for doctors to obtain drugs by deception is to issue a prescription in the name of a family member. The Counter Fraud Service therefore target prescriptions written by doctors for patients with the same surname or home address.  Although most such prescriptions are innocent (e.g. for antibiotics) the issue can cause embarrassment, as Counter Fraud may inform the GMC of their findings (and this has already happened in some cases).  The GMC will want to be sure that there is no evidence of misconduct or deficient performance. One option would be the issuing of a warning on the grounds of a "significant" departure from the guidance given in Good Medical Practice.

The GMC's Good Medical Practice, under the category of Good Clinical Care, states that:

5. Wherever possible, you should avoid providing medical care to anyone with whom you have a close personal relationship.

The LMC would remind you of this guidance and suggest that if you do treat a family member, you maintain the same standards that you would with other patients, including the keeping of contemporaneous medical records.  It would be as well to record why it was not possible to avoid the provision of care in the specific case.  This would then allow you to respond to any enquiry from the Counter Fraud service or the GMC if the prescription were queried.

AM June 06