Move to introduce stronger penalties for unlawfully breaching patient confidentiality
The Department of Health is supporting the Information Commissioner in making changes to the law to allow stronger penalties to be applied where individuals obtain information unlawfully. The changes to the law will provide the possibility of a custodial sentence for those found guilty.
Patients providing information for the purpose of receiving pharmaceutical
services and treatment do so with the legitimate expectation that pharmacists
and pharmacy staff will respect their privacy and protect confidential
information. Confidential information includes personal details (including
information not directly relevant to a patient’s medical history)
and details of medication, both prescribed and non-prescribed. The current
Code of Ethics for pharmacists and registered pharmacy technicians includes
a professional requirement to maintain confidentiality. A similar provision
is included in the new Code of Ethics which comes into force on 1 August
2007. Superintendent pharmacists, pharmacist owners and pharmacist managers
also have a personal professional responsibility to ensure that effective
measures are in place to protect patient confidentiality. These measures
should encompass all pharmacy staff and pharmacy systems and the information
they obtain or hold.
In addition to the professional standards that must be adhered to, there
are legal requirements that must be complied with. The legal requirements
relevant to the processing of patient information are: the Human Rights
Act 1998, which establishes a right to respect for private and family
life; the Data Protection Act 1998, which requires data to be kept secure,
requires access to be restricted and makes it a criminal offence to obtain
or disclose personal data unlawfully; and common law built upon past
cases that have set precedent and established that information provided
for the purpose of receiving care and treatment should not be processed
for other purposes unless required by law.
Therefore, pharmacists must consider their responsibility to protect
and maintain patient confidentiality and should now also be aware that
harsher penalties may soon be the result of any such breaches of legislation.
Further detailed guidance on confidentiality will be published under
the new Code of Ethics in August 2007. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal