The Standards of Proficiency, the Osteopathic Practice Framework and the Revalidation scheme all refer to it. It is against the Code that we are judged at PCC hearings. If everything else is right and the Code of Practice is wrong then the profession is stuffed. That means that it is essential that the whole profession engages with this consultation.
My hope is that the new Code will be as much of an improvement as the new SOP is to S2K. But if we sit back and assume that is going to happen then we lay ourselves open for a rude shock.
The GOsC has just started the consultation process and they expect it to carry on for a considerable time. We all need to think about not only everything that we object to in the old Code, but also what we would positively like to see in the new one.
For example, I would like to see much more emphasis placed on osteopaths exercising their professional/clinical judgement in precisely how they deal with specific situations, with the Code setting out the broad principles of what should be achieved, rather than specifying exactly how it should be done. I would like to see a Code that acknowledges that osteopaths should respond flexibly to individual patients and deal with situations as they consider most appropriate in the specific circumstances. It should also acknowledge that not of us can be expected to perfect all the time – we must be allowed to make mistakes and to handle them appropriately.
Most of all, I want to see a Code of Practice that doesn’t make me fearful and angry when I read it!
I completely agree that the emphasis should be on each osteopath’s personal responsibility for using their clinical judgement to determine what a given situation requires of them. It makes no sense to require osteopaths to behave in a certain way when so much depends on the particular encounter. The regulatory framework needs to reflect this throughout.