And whatsoever I shall see or hear …I will never divulge. Confidentiality and disclosure for intensivists

Abstract

Police requests to provide information about unconscious patients frequently cause difficulty for intensivists. This article reviews the circumstances where an intensive care doctor may and should disclose information about unconscious patients to the police. It first considers what constitutes private and confidential information and explains why this information should be protected. The relevant laws and regulations are then examined to identify circumstances in which a disclosure to the police is compulsory and when it is discretionary. It considers the required and permitted extent of the disclosures, and any requirements that must be fulfilled for the disclosure to be lawful. The role of the General Data Protection Regulations in governing all disclosures is reviewed, and a framework is provided which may be adopted to aid decision-making for disclosures to the police.

Keywords: Capacity; consent; data protection; medical law; police.

Figure 1.

A structured approach to requests to divulge information.