Health Bill

Amendment No. 68 would allow for regulations to be made on measures to safeguard the confidentiality of patients in appropriate cases. Naturally we understand the importance of patient confidentiality, whilst balancing it with a need to be pragmatic from time to time. We feel that the necessary safeguards are already there. We already plan to provide advice to organisations to ensure that patient confidentiality is upheld and we have already issued draft guidance on strengthened governance arrangements which has been the subject of full public consultation. This makes it clear that organisations should follow existing NHS guidance on the protection of patient confidentiality. As part of this, patient information should normally be used only in an anonymised form. Where it is needed in an identifiable form, of course, patient consent should be sought. The only exception to this would be where the organisation judges that there is a serious risk to health and safety which outweighs the need to maintain confidentiality. This is all part of the balance. Clause 21(1)(b) allows for guidance to be issued on the discharge of the accountable officer’s responsibilities. Guidance can also be issued to responsible bodies under Clause 21(2) in connection with the duty to co-operate under Clause 18. It is not the intention that patient-identifiable information will be shared. Only in exceptional cases would patient-identifiable information be shared, and all organisations in receipt of such information would be subject to a common law duty of confidentiality and the Data Protection Act. The amendment would provide the Government with a power to make regulations on this important issue where necessary.