Treatment, custody, support: an exploratory qualitative dialogue to map the ethics of interagency co-operation in hospital emergency departments in the UK and the Netherlands

Abstract

Interviews with senior professionals in accident and emergency (A&E) healthcare, policing and social services to map the ethical dimensions of interagency collaboration suggest that the main ethical themes for systematic research are information sharing and confidentiality, consent, professional values and autonomy, human rights, formal (organisational) accountability, staff safety and public interest collaboration. An emerging specific issue is the extent of A&E disclosure to the police and to the social services and its legal and ethical parameters.