Just a small point that jumped into my head the other day, but I will be
looking further into it and getting advice. Still see what you think.
Scenario: Girl, 16-year-old, attends A&E requesting Morning After Pill, etc.
Says she does not want to see her GP as she is from "that sort of family"
and he's a family friend etc... (Assume your department does provide this
service). Assessed as fit to receive it and advice given by whomever sees
her.
1-2 days later, your automatic computer system spits out her GP letter
(generated automatically from data entered, as in many departments), which
is signed by someone (as there is nothing actually "wrong" with the letter
itself) and GP gets it anyway...
Obviously this can be prevented by the SHO seeing patient not coding on the
computer or by him/her arranging it so that no letter is printed or
intercepting it when it is or (best) printing the only copy of it at the
time of discharge and giving it to patients. BUT some computer systems are
difficult to control this way and, in any case, how many of your typical
SHOs will think of this...
So... Are we in breach of confidentiality? If so, should we not generate
some sort of alert to prevent this? I am sure there are a few other case
scenarios where, unless we arrange to inform the patient and ask permission,
the GP letter will be in the same breach of confidentiality. Or should we
ALWAYS get permission before generating GP letters and have systems which
need to be TOLD to generate the letter otherwise they won't?
Just a thought to cheer up our Sunday...
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