The Medical Defence Union (MDU) is offering its GP members free access to an online training tool to help them with legal and ethical dilemmas and earn CPD points in the process.

The online module gives GPs the opportunity to answer tricky dilemmas, set by MDU experts, on areas such as consent, whistleblowing, removing patients from lists and death certification. Dr Caroline Fryar, MDU medico-legal adviser, said:

"We hope the online training module will appeal both to GP registrars who want to test their medico-legal knowledge in a safe environment, and to experienced GPs who want to brush up on their ethical and legal expertise as part of their continuing professional development or ahead of appraisal. The scenarios are based on those notified to the MDU by members and are designed to help improve knowledge and clinical decision-making."

MDU members can receive the MDU Ethics and Law CPD module, along with another module of their choice free of charge by visiting onexamination. In addition to the ethics and law training, the onexamination website has more than 30 clinical modules to choose from including those on arterial disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes and hyperthyroidism.

Each module is worth one hour of CME/CPD and a certificate of verifiable CPD can be printed off for a GP's portfolio when completed.

One example of a dilemma from the module is:

You are a GP and one of your patients, a nine-month-old child, has been found dead in his cot. Later the same day, the child's mother comes to see you. She says that she suspects her husband, the boy's stepfather, murdered her son. She will not tell the police, as she fears for her own safety and that of her two other children, aged 2 and 4 years. She asks you not to breach confidentiality. The stepfather is also one of your patients and you are aware that he has mental health problems and has been arrested previously, following alleged domestic violence against the children's mother.

Two days later, a police officer arrives at your reception desk. He says that the stepfather has been arrested and charged with the murder of the child. He requests copies of the clinical records of the entire family. Neither parent has consented to the disclosure of the clinical records. What do you do?

- GPs can get their free CPD modules at onexamination where they can select the Ethics and Law CPD module plus one other simply by quoting their membership number and MDU07.

- The MDU is a mutual, not for profit, organisation owned by our members who include over 50 per cent of the UK's hospital doctors and GPs. Established in 1885, we were the world's first medical defence organisation. We defend the professional reputations of our members when their clinical performance is called into question. Our benefits of membership include indemnity for claims of clinical negligence and a wide range of medico-legal advisory services.

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