GMC says patient confidentiality ‘is absolute’

Patient confidentiality is absolute; patients must give their consent before their data can be used, General Medical Council president, Sir Graeme Catto, said this week.

Speaking at the BCS Primary Health Care Specialist Group summer conference, Sir Graeme said the insistence on consent was a good thing and would foster the partnership approach with patients.

He recognised however, that records have other uses. “Records are not just the patient’s preserve. They are vital to improve the health and care of the community in general.”

There were no essential differences in principle between electronic records and those kept in other formats, but there were enormous differences in the practicalities involved, Sir Graeme said.

“Anonymisation and pseudonimisation of records will help doctors to fulfil their obligations under Duties of a Doctor [the GMC’s code of practice] but will also bring new problems,” he said.

He made it clear that the GMC was looking to others to solve the problem of how best to cope with the flood of data generated by electronic systems and that the council was keen not to be seen as a block.

“If there’s anything we as a council can do we would be delighted to help,” he said.

Bedfordshire GP, Mary Hawking, asked whether the GMC had considered the ethical implications of sharing information from the proposed NHS detailed care record which will record all medical treatment.

Sir Graeme replied: “GMC guidance is that the information that needs to be passed on should only be related to immediate needs – that’s the basis on which patients think they are going to get further care.”

Because a patient had given consent to put a record in electronic form they haven’t given their consent for their entire record to be shared with everyone, he said.

The systems had to cope with that requirement, said Sir Graeme.