Patient confidentiality Dr Rob Hicks It may not always be easy, but doctors are obliged to keep their patients' details confidential, even from close family members.

In this article

Foundation of trust

Exceptions

The fact that a patient can tell their GP anything in confidence is the foundation of the trust that's needed in a patient-doctor relationship. But sometimes, as a doctor, honouring that trust can be tricky.

They can't divulge a patient's medical history, even to their closest family members, without permission

Doctors are governed by the rules of confidentiality, which are there to help and protect patients. They can't divulge a patient's medical history, even to their closest family members, without permission, no matter how much they might want to.

Trust allows patients to share important and sensitive information confidently and freely with their doctor. Take away that trust and they won't provide the information the GP needs to come to the right diagnosis.

There are rare occasions when a doctor may sacrifice confidentiality because the patient's actions may be putting others at risk; when someone continues driving despite fits and blackouts, for example, or when someone with HIV continues to have unprotected sex and doesn't tell their partner about their infection. But these are exceptions, not rules.

Many young people mistakenly believe that after they've been to the doctor (for contraception, an sexually transmitted infection check or a pregnancy test, for example) the first thing the doctor will do is phone their parents. This isn't true.

Equally, if a mother asks for information about her daughter, for example, she'll be turned away. Her daughter may have told her everything, but the doctor can't risk breaking her confidentiality. For more information, see Teenagers and confidentiality.

It's impossible to keep everybody happy all the time. The rules of confidentiality are there to do good, but they don't always make life easy.

This article was last medically reviewed by Dr Rob Hicks in February 2007.