Caldicott`s principles are something that all healthcare organizations should follow and share with staff to protect patient information. However, the seventh principle can lead to a lot of confusion in health care. Often, people don`t know when it`s okay to share information about someone and when it`s not. This creates tension and confusion between when it is important to share information or when confidentiality should be maintained. Access to information should be essential. National Health Service (NHS) organisations should have Caldicott guardians who are responsible for protecting and regulating the use of patient information. The guardian is usually a health professional at the board level or his/her deputy. They should develop local protocols for the disclosure of information, restrict access to patient information by applying strict principles of need to know, and regularly review and justify the use of patient information. Personally identifiable information should not be used unless there is no alternative.
In general, you need to maintain the patient`s secret. However, you may be required to disclose information in certain circumstances and override your duty of confidentiality. This is the purpose of Principle 7: to recognise that the exchange of information can be just as important as the protection of confidentiality. It is important that you can find a balance between the need to maintain confidentiality and the need to ensure the safety of people. The organization must understand and comply with the law. The Caldicott Report sets out a number of general principles that health and social organisations should apply when verifying the use of customer information, and these are listed below: Principle 1: Justification for the purpose of using confidential information Personal data may only be collected for one or more specified and lawful purposes and may not be further processed in a manner compatible with that purpose(s). is incompatible. The Caldicott Report was a review commissioned by England`s Chief Medical Officer in 1997. The aim of the report was to examine how patient information is used in the NHS.
These principles apply to the use of confidential information in health and social services institutions and when that information is shared with other organizations and between individuals, both for individual care and for other purposes. Principle 2: Do not use personally confidential information unless strictly necessary “National Health Service organizations should have Caldicott guardians who are responsible for protecting and regulating the use of patient information” Any use of confidential information must be lawful. Any person dealing with confidential information is responsible for ensuring that its use of and access to such information complies with the legal requirements set forth in the law and common law. Organizations should use these principles as a test to determine whether they should share information that could identify an individual. Although there were originally 6 principles, Dame Fiona Caldicott introduced a seventh principle in April 2013 after her second review of information governance. These principles have been incorporated into the NHS Code of Conduct on Privacy. [4] The motivation behind the report was the growing concern about advances in technology and its ability to disseminate patient information quickly and comprehensively. The basis of the review was therefore to ensure that confidentiality is not compromised. All members of the organization must be aware of their responsibility. The Caldicott Committee`s report on the review of patient identification information, commonly referred to as the Caldicott report, was a review commissioned by England`s Chief Medical Officer in 1997 due to growing concerns about the use of patient information in the National Health Service (NHS) in England and Wales and the need to undermine confidentiality due to the development of the To Avoid Patient Information Technologies.
information in the NHS. and its ability to disseminate patient information quickly and comprehensively. The Caldicott report[1] highlighted six key principles and made 16 specific recommendations. Identifiable information should not be used unless it is essential for the purposes indicated. The need for this information should be taken into account at every stage of the process. . The report sets out principles of good practice that are transparent and explicit. Sometimes, according to the report, the NHS faces a tension between the need for patient information and patients` expectation that their information will remain confidential. However, by adhering to Caldicott`s principles, the NHS is able to meet both of these expectations. The General Medical Council`s Privacy Statement (September 2000) also pointed out that as physicians, we have information about patients that is private and sensitive. This information may only be disclosed to third parties if the patient consents to it or if the disclosure can be justified.
We also need to establish patient privacy training programs for our staff and help map the flow of patient information, to name a few areas. .
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