All healthcare professionals are expected to possess a set of generic attributes. According to the General Medical Council’s ‘Tomorrow’s Doctors’ guidance doctors must:

• practise good standards of clinical care, practise within the limits of their competence, and make sure that patients are not put at unnecessary risk
• keep up to date with developments in their field and maintain their skills
• develop and maintain successful relationships with their patients
• work effectively with colleagues
• develop the skills, attitudes and practises of a competent teacher if they have teaching responsibilities
• be honest
• not allow their own health or condition to put patients or others at risk

The General Medical Council’s Good Medical Practice guidance states that doctors must also be trustworthy and act with integrity.