Background

Dr Peters works in a sexual health clinic. Two police officers have come to the clinic and asked the receptionist for a list of all the patients who attended the clinic the previous Monday. Dr Peters comes out to reception to see if he can help and asks the police if they have a court order for the release of the information. 

The police confirm that they don’t have a court order but are asking for the list because they received reports of a serious assault that took place outside the clinic on Monday night. It’s their understanding that a group of young people were verbally abusing a young man, ‘Person A’, in the waiting room. Given at least some of their interaction appears to have taken place in the waiting room, the police explain that the key suspect may have attended the clinic themselves on Monday. They say that when ‘Person A’ left the clinic after his appointment, the key suspect and wider group were waiting for him outside. They followed ‘Person A’ to the car park where a serious assault took place, which ended with ‘Person A’ requiring hospital treatment.

Dr Peters asks the police for a description of the suspect they are looking for. The police confirm that they don’t have a detailed description. They say that the suspect’s face was obscured by his hood and sunglasses but confirm that ‘Person A’ described him as just under 6 foot tall, late teens to early twenties with a slim build. Dr Peters explains that could be any number of their patients given the high number of people that attend the clinic in a typical day. In response, the police ask again for a list of the names of the patients that attended the clinic on Monday to understand if any of them are known to police already.