Assignment on confidentiality PDF

Confidentiality 1
Issues surrounding confidentiality.
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Affiliation
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Date

Confidentiality 2
Issues surrounding confidentiality.
The aspect of confidentiality is highly respected in the medical profession. This is
alongside work ethics and professional standards that medical practitioners work with. In
addition, the Data Protection Act 2018 plays a significant role when it comes to
confidentiality. In the year 2009, the General Medicine Council published supplementary
guidance and general guidance on “Disclosing Information about Serious Communicable
Diseases.” It is also worth noting that confidentiality is taken to be an ethical and legal duty.
It is a good practice to establish trust between a doctor and his patient so that information
being provided is tangible and sufficient. Also, information can be disclosed when a court
order is issued. The most important element to be put into consideration is the patient’s
consent. A doctor must seek consent first form the patient before he or she discloses the
information to a third party, (Papoutsi et al., 2018, 312). As such, reasons for the consent to
deny consent have to be understood by the doctor. However, in a situation where others
may face risks because of the underlying conditions, doctors may be justified when they
disclose information- only in exceptional cases. In making this consideration, the patient’s
interests must be outweighed by the public or individuals’ interests which may be
detrimental to their health. The General Medical Council provides a clear guideline on how
information can be protected from improper disclosure, (St. John et al., 2017, 191). The
guideline state that any information that a practitioner holds, about a patient. Should be
effectively protected. In case the information is disclosed, one has to keep the disclosures to
the minimal levels as possible. This can be in situations where a laboratory expert gets the
information and relays it to the patient’s doctor. Personal genealogical practitioners may

Confidentiality 3
also be given the results. Therefore, disclosure should be made also after seeking consent
from the patient. In situations where the patient is not willing to disclose the information or
medical condition to close people such as a wife or sexual partner, the doctor and the
patient should arrive at a compromise by giving clear explanations to the patient about the
possible consequences his partners may face. Knowledge of how they can protect their
sexual partners should also be transferred to the patient. In the scenario at hand, D. Hope
may be considered to have breached confidentiality after forwarding the results to the
patient’s Genealogical practitioner especially after failing to seek consent from him.
However, these are the issues at hand
Whether Dr. Hope will breach confidentiality by forwarding the results to Mr. Johnson’s GP
In this scenario, Mr. Johnson has denied Dr. Hope the consent to forward the results
to his personal doctor. Johnson has all the rights to deny consent despite the fact that the
results are forwarded with good intention. In this scenario, doctors have the duty of getting
the best help and advice for their clients. As such, forwarding the results may not seem like
a bad idea although the patient is not willing to do so. He fears that he will suffer
discrimination, (O’Brien et al., 2017, 12). Under the Data Protection Act, Dr. Hope has the
duty of maintaining confidentiality between him and his client.
Whether Mr. Johnson should inform his previous and current sexual partners of both the
chlamydia and his HIV status
Mr. Johnson has the duty of ensuring that those close to him are safe. This relates to
the sexual partners he has. In most cases, partners are encouraged to know their health
conditions together so that they can have healthy children. He also has a pregnant wife and
this necessitates his action of informing her as long as they are in good terms. On the other