Guide to HIV Healthcare Confidentiality
posted: 15/12/2010
A new guide for people living with HIV explains your rights to confidentiality in healthcare and what you can expect. The guide, Personal information and the NHS, goes through common concerns people living with HIV have about how the NHS treats the privacy of information about HIV status.
It explains how personal information will be handled, and gives practical advice about what to do if people have any concerns.
Know the facts and take action
This guide helps people with HIV understand confidentiality and privacy rights. It encourages people to ask questions and make concerns known, which NAT hopes will help improve things for everyone. If a person with HIV feels that their personal information has been mishandled, armed with the facts in this guide, they can take action.
Confidentiality is protected in the NHS in the following ways:
- NHS staff should not talk about someone to anyone else either inside or outside the NHS without the patient’s consent; this includes talking to family members and friends of the patient
- NHS staff should not leave names visible anywhere. They should therefore cover up names on paper files or close computer screens and electronic medical records
- All paper records should be kept in a secure place and all computerised records should have electronic protection, such as secure logins and passwords.
Deborah Jack, Chief Executive of NAT (National AIDS Trust), told us:
‘Many people living with HIV have experienced concerns relating to confidentiality of their status and in healthcare this is especially important. In order to receive the best healthcare, sometimes this does mean sharing your personal information but people living with HIV should be able to do that and feel confident that their information will only be shared appropriately and with their consent. NAT has developed this guide in order to set out the basic principles of confidentiality within the NHS, as it can be a confusing area and many people do not fully understand what the rules – or their rights – are.’
guide: Personal information and the NHS is here
NAT's policy report Confidentiality in healthcare for people living with HIV provides useful background
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