Confidentiality Health Dictionary

The ethical principle that a doctor does not disclose information given in confidence by a patient.

The patient’s consent is needed before a doctor supplies confidential information to an insurance company, employer, or lawyer. However, doctors must disclose information when required to by law or when faced with injuries or disorders that indicate a serious crime. Doctors are also required to notify specified infectious diseases. Treatment of young children is usually discussed with the parents, but an older child’s request for confidentiality is generally respected if the doctor feels that he or she is competent enough to understand the issues involved.

Privacy in the context of privileged communication (such as patient-doctor consultations) and medical records is safeguarded.

n. an ethical and legal obligation that requires doctors to keep information about their patients private. It is the foundation on which trust and the therapeutic relationship is built. A doctor automatically assumes such an obligation during a patient consultation. Confidentiality is generally considered to be held within the health-care team rather than with one particular professional in order to facilitate effective care, although stricter rules can apply in *genitourinary medicine and occupational health (among others). Confidentiality is not an unlimited duty and sometimes it is permissible or even obligatory to breach a patient’s confidence, e.g. for child protection or when a patient suffers from a *notifiable disease. Confidentiality may also be breached where there is a serious risk of physical harm to an identifiable individual or individuals. However, since there is no ‘duty to warn’ in the UK, doctors are not obliged to breach confidentiality where there is a serious risk of harm. The GMC requires that doctors should be prepared to justify their decision whether or not they decide to breach confidentiality in cases of serious risk. See also data protection; privacy. —confidential adj.