Patient rights

As a patient you have the following rights (I have put sources next to most and willing to back the following information up). I will be posting more about this.

1) You can ask for a doctor of the same gender for intimate examinations (source, Strawberry Gardens Medical practice, Morecambe). Even hospitals will allow this but this might not always be possible as it depends on how many doctors they have and I think it would depend on who asked, for example a Childs need might come first, something I can understand. If that is not possible at your GP practice, go to another practice and tell them you are in need of immediate medical attention and due to the nature only willing to see a male/female GP (you do not need to tell them what it is for). In some cases some patients might prefer a doctor of the opposite gender. You should also be asked if you want a chaperone to be present and they should be of the same gender as you (as far as I am aware, you should not be in view of them).

2) You can refuse to have a trainee present. Might sound obvious, but this was not always followed in the past, especially by some teaching hospitals. In the words of a friend of mine “they viewed those patients as a piece of meat on a slab”

3) You can refuse to allow data to be shared with admin staff and others. “You must respect the wishes of any patient who objects to particular information being shared with others providing care, except where this would put others at risk of death or serious harm.” Source, GMC. This is also seems to be backed up by the NHS code of practice 2003 and the BMA. It is also something the Clinical Governance Support Practitioner NHS Grampian (although he seems to have turned a blind eye to the fact that this is happening and practices in the Grampian area). You can also have clinical data withheld from other doctors/nurses unless it would put others at serious risk. For example if you have been raped/abused, you do not need to let every doctor you see know if that helps you cope.

4) You can refuse medical treatment. This can be overridden if you are not deemed to me mentally competent. This has been controversial in the past.

Tam Fry, the chairman of the Child Growth Foundation seemed to be planning on forcing children to give data for the ‘fat stats’ exercise the government wanted when he stated “The Social Care Act says that when there is an urgent need for medical information it can override an individual’s right to refuse.” (The Times, 21/12/06, p.24). In the future they will most likely get this info from their National Care Records without consent