‘Confidentiality at risk’

Press, 7 May 1983, Page 14

‘Confidentiality at risk’

PA Wellington Nurses are worried that doctor-patient confidentiality could be broken if psychiatric records are kept on the Wanganui computer. The executive director of the Nurses’ Association, Miss Pat Carroll, said the confidentiality of patients’ records was of paramount importance. Specific diagno-

i sis, including psychiatric illness, should be automatict ally suppressed unless they • were authorised by the ■ medical superintendent of i the hospital. Miss Carroll was com- : menting on the announce- , ment this week that a Coms mission of Inquiry would be ' set up to look into the ; release of psychiatric patients.

c4lls had also been made for the police to have access to psychiatric histories through the Wanganui computer. Miss Carroll said the stigma of psychiatric illness as opposed to physical illness was still evident in the community. News reports emphasising any psychiatric history would do nothing to change this.