A senior medical officer, lawyer and medicolegal practitioner, Dr. Edward Addo Dankwa, has warned that breaching patients’ confidentiality in medical health can have dire consequences as it can lead to loss of trust in the healthcare professionals and impacting healthcare delivery.

Speaking in a recent interview on The Lowdown on GhanaWeb TV, he stressed the need for healthcare professionals to maintain the trust of their clients.

He said some Ghanaian politicians, for instance, seek healthcare abroad because they fear their health records may not be handled well by healthcare professionals locally.

“If you are to break confidentiality, it should be with the consent of the client, and not based on the perspective of the clinician. It is not expected to come from a doctor, it sends the wrong signals to patients, that for all those coming, your information would be released to the general public.

"It is immoral, unprofessional and against our ethical codes for doctors to breach the confidentiality of clients. Some of our leaders told me they go out there to seek healthcare not necessarily because we don’t have competent people to handle it here, but because they think their information may not be handled well here,” he stated.

Dr. Addo Dankwa clarified that there is a thin line between privacy and confidentiality when it comes to healthcare delivery.

“Privacy is the right to prevent people from getting access to one’s private space but for confidentiality, the person has shared information with a healthcare professional and you that doctor that has received the information, you don’t share the medical records with the consent of the third party,” he explained.

Dr. Addo Dankwa added that although duty of confidentiality should be enjoyed by all classes, whether celebrity, or criminals, there are exceptions.

“A public person should enjoy confidentiality and when it comes to health records, you breach it only when the law allows you to do so. Confidentiality is not absolute and one can be compelled to release information, only in the confines of the law.

“At times, it is in the interest of the public for you to release the information and there will be dire consequences if you are to break confidentiality to protect others from significant harm. Health information is confidential, when a person dies outside the hospital, autopsy will be done. A it was done in the case of the late Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, autopsy was done and the family has not come to dispute it. We should respect his legacy and not raise questions about his death," he added.

He pointed out that the wishes of a patient should be respected even in death.

“If the person has HIV and he doesn’t want his family to know, as a doctor you don’t go and release the information to the family. Dead people still have their right to confidentiality until the lawful exemptions kick in,"he stated.

Dr Addo Dankwa entreated healthcare professionals to carefully evaluate each situation and balance competing interests to determine if breaching of confidentiality serves the greater good or protects the public from harm.

“There is no fixed rule as to whether to breach confidentiality or not. You consider each case on their basis, the factors at play and that will inform you whether it is in the public interest or to protect somebody, to make balancing act to make sure that the overriding interest of the public called for breach of confidence," he stated.

Regarding political leaders, Dr. Addo Dankwa suggested that they should be subject to medical tests to determine their fitness, like is done for new employees of companies.

“Generally, I am of the view that we should have a way to declare the fitness of flagbearers, but there are other difficulties, a party goes to select a flagbearer, but we do not have an independent office when it comes to healthcare delivery. Government has a hand in the appointment of the CEO of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, if that CEO says Bawumia or Mahama is fit to become flagbearer, will Ghanaians believe it?” he quizzed.

He also added that medical practitioners can lose their license for breaching the confidence of their clients.

JKB/AE

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