ETHICS

Legal and Ethical Aspects of Health and Social Care



Legal and Ethical Aspects of Health and Social Care

Case: Breaching Confidentiality to Protect Others

Introduction

Physicians and doctors are duty bound to keep their patient's confidences. In spirit, doctor's duty to maintain confidentiality means that whatever medical information is revealed by the patient to his or her or discovered by a doctor in regard to the treatment of the patient should not be disclosed. Doctors are under an oath to not divulge their patient's information and protect their confidentiality unless the patient has consented to it (Life with HIV, n.d, p.1). Almost all the theoretical perspectives of ethics in the entire medical world state that information related to the patient should be kept confidential to the highest degree. This confidentiality will lead to frank and complete disclosure by the patient to his doctor which in turn will aid the doctor in treating him. But ethical dilemmas arise all the time.

In this case Bob has been diagnosed with HIV positive by Dr Gomez at a local Trust hospital. Dr Gomez then starts a course of treatment for Bob and also advices him to let his sexual partners know of Bob's condition. Bob has been involved in a series of sexual relations but for last eighteen months he and Sue are in a relationship. Sue is also expecting a baby in two months. As the treatment plan progresses Dr Gomez comes to know that Sue has not been informed by Bob about his condition. Dr Gomez then tries to make Bob understand that Sue needs to be tested for HIV positive and also the baby might be at risk but Bob unalterably turns down the advice and says that if Dr Gomez tried to tell Sue about his condition he would stop the treatment course. Dr Gomez is facing a problem related to breaching the confidentiality of his patient as to whether or not Sue should be told or not.

Ethical Aspects of the Scenario

Confidentiality is included in the list of basic and essential principals in a health care setting. Information provided by the patient is under the ethical and legal obligations of confidentiality (Department of Health, 2003, p.7). Problems and issues arise where confidentiality is concerned especially when that confidential information is related other ethical codes such as avoiding harm to others and the patient. As can be seen in our case that Dr Gomez is facing the dilemma as to tell Sue and Bob's GP about his disease or not. Confidentiality in this case can be considered from the following ethical perspectives:

Consequentialism

This approach says that an action can be categorized as morally right when it gives rise to best outcome or the consequence. The end justifies the means that is the action taken is justified as long as the outcomes for executing that action are for greater good (Ministry of Ethics, 2010, p.1). So under this approach Dr. Gomez can tell Sue about Bob's disease to protect her and her baby from a life ...