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On 15 Sep, 11:00, IanAl wrote:
On Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:15:06 +0100, BobC wrote:
"A friend" who works for in the medical profession told me about a
patient who arrived for an appointment. He asked for his name, but as
he was foreign couldn't understand it, so asked him to spell it. In
response he offered his driving licence to copy it from.

But on seeing the licence, the picture was nothing like the person
presenting it. In fact not even the same skin colour!

I said "Well I assume you asked him to sit in the waiting room, while
you went and called the police!"

It's not a crime to present another person's driving licence to a
doctor.

"Oh no we can't do anything like that, patient confidentiality means
we are not allowed to do anything about it".

This sounds balmy to me. This is surely important not only to the
authorities but also the doctor who will effectively be treating a
different person to who he thinks he is.

Does the goup feel this use of "patient confidentiality" is correct.
Discuss!

Doctors have an overriding duty to treat patients. If they are unsure
of the identity of the patient, it would be more difficult to treat
them, but no more than if they didn't have the patient's medical
notes.

You don't say whether the name on the driving licence matches a
patient on the doctor's list.

There is no overriding duty to carry out non-emergency treatment.

The Doctor can treat anyone he likes, assuming he is an independent
practicioner.
The Doctors duty is to the patient, not the Home Office.