Hi, Ahmad.
On Mon, 07 Dec 1998 10:50:19 , you wrote:
>The government refused to give an answer the other day whether the NHS
>will be exempt from key escrow.
>
>The upshot is this: no one in Britain will have the right to private
>and confidential communications. Doctors and patients' confidentiality
>are no exception.
We have the right not to send confidential information over electronic
systems. This can still be exercised and in my opinion should be.
>
>
>It's all very well that we argue for protection of privacy of doctors'
>communications when the reality is that this will never be allowed.
Then medicine as we understand it simply ceases to exist.
Ethics are not negotiable. At some point we as professionals will have
to make a stand on this matter, if only because we will be the ones
legally liable to be sued for disclosure.
Saying 'the government won't pay me unless I do it' will not be any
defence from our rightly outraged patients.
>
>If our ethics are being sacrificed with such ease, what chance the rest
>of what we stand on?
None whatever if we remain supine.
Picking simple and defensible issues like confidentiality and fighting
for them, individually and in public if necessary, may be the only
alternative to professional destruction.
My opinion of our chances or success, however, is reflected in my
recent advice to my daughter who after a brilliant set of GCSE results
announced she wanted to be a doctor...
Guess what I told her.
And guess what she decided to do....
Kind regards,
Paul
>
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