Case Studies for principle 4
Miss Smith is a dentist working in a practice. The owner of the practice decided
to set up a Facebook account to publicise the services the practice offered.
Although Miss Smith did not operate the practice account, she linked her own personal
account to that of the practice.
Following the launch of the practice Facebook page, Miss Smith received ‘friend
requests’ from some of her patients, which she accepted.
One of these patients then complained to the GDC that, when looking at some of Miss
Smith’s previous postings, they saw that she appeared to have made derogatory comments
about some of the patients she had treated, although the patients were not named.
The patient also complained that some of the photographs posted on Miss Smith’s
Facebook page were inappropriate for a dentist.
The fitness to practise caseworker considered that Miss Smith may have breached
a number of the standards and guidance in Standards for the Dental Team including
(but not limited to):
- 4.2.3 You must not post any information or comments about patients on social networking
or blogging sites.
- 9.1 You must ensure that your conduct, both at work and in your personal life, justifies
patients’ trust in you and the public’s trust in the dental profession.
- 9.1.3 You should not publish anything that could affect patients’ and the public’s
confidence in you, or the dental profession, in any public media, unless this is
done as part of raising a concern.
The Investigating Committee looked at the comments and photographs and took the
view that some of them were inappropriate for any dental professional to make or
publish. However, it also noted that shortly after receiving the complaint, Miss
Smith had closed down her Facebook account and apologised to the patient in question.
On this occasion, the Investigating Committee was satisfied that Miss Smith understood
her conduct had been inappropriate and had taken steps to rectify the negative impact
of her actions. Miss Smith was issued with a letter of advice.