The Use and Misuse of Confidential Information

Extract

There has been increasing concern about Governmental collection of information for statistical analysis (World Medicine, 13 June 1973; British Medicine, 7 April 1978; the Sunday Times, 2 July 1978). Recently the Central Ethical Committee of the BMA refused to agree that General Practitioners should record information about pre-school children containing details about the mother's obstetric history. Again, the Regional Community Physicians refused to allow Police access to hospital diagnostic information about patients who had been involved in road traffic accidents. Yet, since 1964, psychiatrists have apparently been happy to send to the DHSS on HMR1(Psych) forms identifiable information containing such highly-sensitive details as whether an in-patient is manic-depressive, homosexual, epileptic, has used alcohol or other drugs, has venereal disease, is living with someone other than his wife, or has been in prison.