Examination of The Principle of Confidentiality of Patients under Medical Law

Abstract

Complexities in modern living have necessitated that patient confidences
are seen as privileged information by the practitioners to be well respected.
It is a symbiotic relationship in the sense that the physician performs
brilliantly when he has enough background information on the matter at
hand from the patient. It is the purpose of this paper to look at the need for
the upholding of the ethical code of confidentiality. How far can confidences
be held, and particularly what is the position of confidentiality given the
vast stratum of means of holding and disseminating information that is
available in today’s technology driven world? Besides increasingly there
are statutory considerations that may vitiate the complete need for
confidentiality. Legislation has sent out mixed signals which while promoting
the rights and welfare of incompetent adults and young persons, as well as
sound persons, to regarding confidences as privileged information also seeks
to balance the need to advance research for the benefit of future patients.
The burden of enforcing the ethical code of confidentiality then has to thread
the thin line of persuading patients to open up to their physicians for proper
diagnosis with the assurance of confidentiality, and while upholding the
rights of others to be free for example, from contagious diseases, or to be
protected from imminent danger which could easily be avoided by breaching
such confidences when the need arises. The role of confidentiality as part
of an ethical code is to set standards and clearly define the duties that a
practitioner owes to the patient, and to stress the fact that the public can
bring to account those who fall below these standards. By upholding the
medical ethic of confidentiality in appropriate circumstances, the medical
profession and our courts of law build trust if they can show that they have
the capacity to discipline earring members.