Purpose:
Doctors have a professional responsibility to share data in emergencies to protect their patients or other persons. Often in emergency situations the patient is unable to provide consent.
What are my Options?
You have the right to make pre-determined decisions about the type and extent of care you will receive should you fall ill in the future, these are known as “Advance Directives”.
What is the impact?
If an Advance Directive is lodged in your records, these will normally be honoured despite the observations in the first paragraph.
There are occasions when intervention is necessary in order to save or protect a patient’s life or to prevent them from serious immediate harm, for instance during a collapse or diabetic coma or serious injury or accident.
In many of these circumstances the patient may be unconscious or too ill to communicate. In these circumstances we have an overriding duty to try to protect and treat the patient.
If necessary we will share your information and possibly sensitive confidential information with other emergency healthcare services, the police or fire brigade, so that you can receive the best treatment.
The law acknowledges this and provides supporting legal justifications.
Individuals have the right to make pre-determined decisions about the type and extend of care they will receive should they fall ill in the future, these are known as “Advance Directives”.
If lodged in your records, these will normally be honoured despite the observations in the first paragraph.