Practice Set 5: Confidentiality & Data Protection Scenarios

Patient confidentiality is a cornerstone of medical ethics and a legal requirement under the Data Protection Act and the common law duty of confidence. The SJT tests your understanding of when confidentiality must be maintained, when it can legitimately be broken, and how information should be handled in everyday situations.

Confidentiality scenarios in the SJT range from obvious breaches (discussing a patient in a public place) to more nuanced dilemmas (a patient discloses they are a risk to others). The key principle is that patient information should only be shared on a need-to-know basis with those directly involved in the patient's care — unless there is a lawful and ethical justification for wider disclosure.

The Caldicott Principles provide a framework for handling patient-identifiable information in the NHS. They emphasise justifying the purpose of information use, minimising the amount shared, and ensuring access is on a strict need-to-know basis. The seventh Caldicott Principle states that the duty to share information can be as important as the duty to protect it — particularly where sharing is necessary to safeguard a patient or protect the public.