Medical confidentiality

Health professionals will have an obvious role in working in the best interests of children, young people and others and attempts to ensure their needs are met. This will often involve close working with a number of agencies, for example, work with Youth Offending Teams or interventions involving abusers of illegal substances.

Patient based information is generally given to Health professionals in confidence by patients and disclosure to another agency must have regard to the common law duty of confidence and statutory restrictions on disclosure, in much the same way as other agencies will generally need to consider disclosures of personal information.

Where possible consent from the individual (or his family in the case of a young person) either in writing or a meeting of relevant caseworkers with the individual (or their family) should be obtained and this will overcome legal restrictions. In certain cases this will not be possible or consent is withheld. It will then be necessary to assess whether disclosure is justified in the public interest.

In the context of health, particular consideration will need to be given as to the possible harm, which could result from disclosure of a patient’s personal information.

The risk of possible damage to the patient/doctor relationship of trust and the likelihood that the individual concerned may disassociate themselves from a necessary programme of health care intervention must be balanced against the positive benefits of diverting the individual from their criminal lifestyle or protecting other members of society. Where a decision is made to disclose in the public interest, health professionals should ensure that that their reasons for reaching this decision are recorded.

In taking the decision to disclose health professionals will need to make a clear distinction between the collection and subsequent sharing of information which may take place openly and expressly as part of the legal process, for example, a report for a court hearing and the sharing of information acquired in the past for medical treatment or therapy.

The Youth Justice Board has produced a helpful note Guidance for Youth Offending team on Information Sharing for those involved in the work of Youth Offending Teams. Further guidance for health professionals can be found in a Manual for Caldicott Guardians: Protocols Governing the receipt and disclosure of patient/client information (within the Health Service). 

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