CODE OF PRACTICE
Our Ethical and Medical Code of Practice
This page sets out how MedicalCert works as a platform connecting patients with independent GMC-registered doctors, and what patients and the organisations receiving a certificate can expect of it. It covers evidence, identity, patient safety, safeguarding, the limits of a remote consultation and continuity of care.
Remote consultation has changed how people obtain routine medical documentation. Someone who needs a letter for work, travel, study or insurance no longer has to wait for a face-to-face appointment before that request can be assessed. The doctors who use MedicalCert are self-employed independent practitioners. They are individually accountable to the General Medical Council, and they work to the GMC’s Good Medical Practice, which sets standards for registered doctors rather than for the companies whose services they use. MedicalCert does not direct or supervise their clinical decisions. This Code of Practice describes how the platform is built to support that independent judgement, and where its own responsibilities begin and end.
CORE PRINCIPLES
Evidence and clinical judgement
Where a request calls for it, patients are asked to upload supporting evidence, such as a discharge letter or a prescription. The reviewing doctor reads that evidence alongside the consultation answers, decides whether it is enough, and can ask for more. Where there is no clear clinical basis for the document requested, it is not issued.Identity and traceability
Every consultation records the patient’s full name, date of birth and contact details, and the certificate is issued in those details. Some consultations also ask for photo identification. The reviewing doctor can ask for further proof of identity and can decline to issue a document where identity is unclear. Every certificate carries a unique Submission ID, so an organisation that receives one can check with us that it was issued, at our certificate verification page.Patient Safety
Each consultation is written to put the relevant red flag questions in front of the doctor before any decision is made. Recognising risk and acting on it is part of a doctor’s professional obligations under GMC guidance. Where a doctor judges that a condition cannot be assessed safely at a distance, no document is issued and the patient is directed to in-person care.Safeguarding
Safeguarding concerns, including possible harm, abuse or thoughts of suicide, are a matter for the doctor’s professional judgement under GMC guidance. The consultation includes questions written to surface them, and it shows urgent support information to a patient whose answers indicate immediate risk.Understanding Limitations
The platform covers documentation for specific purposes such as employment, travel, study or insurance. A remote consultation cannot include a physical examination, and it is not a substitute for urgent or emergency care, a hospital or a pharmacy. Those limits are stated to patients rather than left to be discovered.Patients First
Doctors give relevant health advice alongside the documentation they issue. Where care cannot be given properly at a distance, the patient is advised to see their own GP. A request that has been paid for is still a clinical request, and it is assessed as one.Continuity of Care
Patients are advised to inform their own GP for ongoing medical care. The platform aims to work alongside the NHS, supporting rather than replacing long-term primary care relationships.CONCLUSION
Clinical judgement on this platform belongs to the independent doctor who reviews the consultation, and that doctor answers to the General Medical Council for it. MedicalCert’s own part is narrower, and it is what this Code commits the platform to: run a consultation that asks the right questions, handle the information it collects carefully, and make every certificate checkable by the organisation that receives it. Where something cannot be done properly at a distance, saying so plainly is the standard we hold ourselves to.
