SECRECY IN MEDICINE

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28951, 20 July 1959, Page 15

SECRECY IN MEDICINE

Doctors Change Attitude (N.Z. Press Association-Copyright) EDINBURGH, July 17. British doctors decided today that they sometimes might have to tell. A dramatic change in their traditional attitude to professional secrecy was made at the annual meeting of the British Medical Association. The conference, by a large majority, decided to allow a doctor, on certain occasions, to disclose information about a patient to another person. The doctors believed this would help particularly in cases of persons unfit to drive but still able to take out licences. At present a doctor is obliged to observe strictly the rule of professional secrecy. He must refrain from disclosing voluntarily to any third party without the patient’s consent—except with legal sanction—information he has obtained professionally. Delegates voted to add a new paragraph to that policy stating that “the complications of modern life sometimes create difficulties for the doctor in the application of the principle and on certain occasions it may be necessary to acquiesce in some modification.’’ It added that the over-riding consideration must be the adoption of a line of conduct that would benefit the patient and protect his interests. Dangerous Drivers One speaker. Dr. E. C. Dawsor? said in the interests of both patient and community a doctor should reserve the right in conscience to take steps to remove a dangerous driver from the road. He knew of a patient suffering from epilepsy who had been allowed to continue driving and was killed. The doctors in this case had been in a position to save that man’s life.

Another speaker, Dr. H. G. Dowler, said the problem had become worse with the introduction of the three-year driving licences. After obtaining such a licence, a person could develop epilepsy or some other condition making him a danger.