Strong Protests At Release Of Confidential Medical File

Press, Volume C, Issue 29643, 13 October 1961, Page 18

Strong Protests At Release Of Confidential Medical File

(Epactal Cnrrcapoedent SYDNEY, October 12. The British Medical Association, Opposition leaders, and Sydney newspapers strongly protested'against the action of the Minister of Health (Mr W. F. Sheahan) in making public the confidential case history of a former mental patient

Mr Sheahan tabled in Par-, 1 lament the patient's file a after the Sydney “Sun” bla- 1 zoned on its front page an i article disclosing that « i voting Umverstiy honours 1 graduate had been wrongly Diagnosed as a schizophrenic ’ at Gladesville Mental Hoepi- ' tai. j The “Sun” article said i that, at the request of his : father and friends, who i were alarmed at his condi- 1 tion, the student had been removed to another hospital. , where he had undergone ] treatment, been cured, and , discharged. j After violent attacks < against him for his action in • tabling a confidential de- ’ partmental file, the Minister 1 said his reason for doing so 1 was to allow the newspapers ’ to check the facts. “These papers were tabled I to reassure the public that 1 no-one can be dumped in an ' asylum, battered over the < head, and left there to rot I as was indicated in sensational front-page allegations ] in the ‘Sun’,” he said. 1 Mr Sheahan described 1 newspaper attacks against 1 [him as "wild and crude.” 1 j and drew attention to the . fact that an election was i i coming up.

While the patient's file was available for public inspection at Parliament House for nearly a week, Opposition members called the Minister’s action “monstrous.” The secretary of the B M A. (Dr. Hugh Hunter) said: “The BMA. protests strongly against a patient's medical history going beyond the Minister of Health, without the consent of a patient <m relatives.” Tlie State Opposition leader (Mr Askin) said Mr Sheahan’s acion was callous and unnecessary, and would prejudice the former patient’s chances of rehabilitation. . The “Sun” in an editorial with a seven-column banner headline, “Sheahan’s Betrayal,” said it believed the real reason for the Minister's “un-ininisterial” action was to discourage other former patients from following the course of the University student, and telling his story to the newspapers. The “Sydney Morning Herald" said many people in the community must have been appalled and sickened by Mr Sheahan’s action in tabling a confidential file. “This is politics at its dirtiest,” said the newspaper. “Apparently noth-

ing is sacred now—not even the most .intimate confidences of a patient to his doctor.” The nowapaper warned any member of the public who had « relative or friend in a mental hospital not to make “one squeak of proi test" which reflects on the i “Pooh Bahs’* ()f the Labour movement “or they will be savagely punished.” 'Their private lives will be pitilessly laid bare to the public view by that expert in nastiness, Mr Sheahau.” said the newspaper.