PROFESSIONAL SECRECY.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1410, 29 September 1923, Page 5

PROFESSIONAL SECRECY.

DOCTORS AND V.D. CASES. ABSOLUTE SECURITY FOR PATIENTS. (By Telegraph. Press Association.) DUNEDIN, Friday. At a meeting of the Hospital Board Dr Falconer, medical superintendent, wrote: "There is no doubt in the minds of members of the staff in regard to the question of privilege attaching to communications made by a patient to physician or surgeon in his professional capacity. In my evidence before the Venereal Diseases Committee I recommended absolute security for patients in Court, that evidence of venereal disease cannot be obtained from his own private medical attendant or medical officer at a V.D. clinic, or from the records for the purpose of any civil action pending against the patient, except for the purpose of the enforcement of the Health Act itself. Recently a plea for privilege in regard to a patient's condition was made by a member of the honorary staff of the hospital in a civil court proceeding, and such privilege was disallowed by the judge. If a similar judgment were given in regard to the records of the venereal diseases cinic at the Dunedin Hospital our boasted secrecy, as part of the campaign against disease, would be without legal basis. Apart from the remits, the question that any such private privilege should exist, it is obvious that it is wrong that we should invite patients to come to the clinic under the false pretence of an assurance of secrecy. It was resolved to ask the Department to have the law amended.