New confidentiality learning materials launched

Following the publication of our Confidentiality guidance, we have developed a set of new online learning materials which are available on our Confidentiality learning materials homepage.

Decisions about whether to disclose confidential information without consent are among the most difficult doctors regularly have to make. The materials include new case studies which illustrate how the principles in the guidance might be applied in the kind of situations doctors encounter and find challenging including:

• Elder abuse – an elderly patient tells her doctor, in the strictest confidence, that her daughter and carer has hit her.
• Serious communicable diseases – a patient says he does not want his GP, and later his surgeon, to be told of his HIV diagnosis. 
• Vulnerable adults – a young patient with learning disabilities is falling into bad company and neglecting his diabetes. 
• Alcoholism – a GP has concerns about the safety of her patients: he’s a physician worried about excessive drinking. Should she raise a concern about her patient’s fitness to practise?
• Reporting petty crime – a doctor in a drug addiction clinic has her mobile phone stolen. Should she give the police the names of patients she thinks might be responsible?

Other materials available are:

• a PowerPoint presentation providing historical, ethical and legal context to the guidance, including an explanation of why confidentiality is seen as such a fundamental professional value  
• a podcast on reporting gunshot and knife wounds
• a literature review on public and professional attitudes to privacy of healthcare data
• links to Good Medical Practice in Action (GMPiA) scenarios which explore confidentiality issues. GMPiA is our online, interactive package of case studies. Scenarios about confidentiality include whether doctors should report suspected knife crime, concerns about patients’ fitness to drive, domestic abuse of a vulnerable patient, and whether a patient should be informed that his partner is HIV positive.

We hope that doctors and others - including patients, employers, healthcare and other professionals and members of the public - will find these materials helpful in understanding what is expected of doctors when making these difficult decisions.

You can view the Confidentiality learning materials page here.