HEALTH DELIVERY

Health delivery includes the prevention, care and treatment of diseases. The article below and subsequent ones will delve into issues relating to the health delivery in Ghana such as patient-doctor confidentiality, access to health care in terms of affordability, professionalism of health providers, stimatisation of mental health and others.

PATIENT CONFIDENTIALITY AND DIGNITY

How would you feel if your private confidential information is shared so casually with some total stranger? It is just simple. No one would want to hear their personal issues discussed by others. Well one would wonder why Patient confidentiality and what it is.

Patient confidentiality talks about the medical and personal information given to a health provider and will not be provided to others unless with specific permission for release. Such information should be available only to the doctor of record or insurance personnel if necessary. Patient confidentiality is also a part of the rules of evidence in many common law jurisdictions. It is a legal concept related to medical confidentiality that protects communications between a patient and his or her doctor being used against the in court.

There are legitimate reasons when a nurse or doctor has to tell a colleague health provider the diagnosis of a patient. When a nurse has to hand over the care of a patient to another nurse the diagnosis of the patient is shared. And when a doctor has to refer a patient or sign out a patient to another doctor it is important, for continuity of care, for diagnoses to be shared. Personal information is only disclosed to another person when the patient consent has been obtained.

Now, the issue of doctor –patient confidentiality here in Ghana is to be given the needed attention. This needs to be addressed. In some cases, this confidentiality is broken. An instance is the diagnosis of a person with the HIV virus. This patient overheard a discussed by some health workers who found out about his status. On another occasion, a patient’s wife was informed by a nurse about her husband’s diagnosis to protect her from contracting the disease. Some doctors after living and working in the western countries for some time have come to realize how serious this issue is and have become very much aware of the problem of the abuse of patient confidential information. It is serious and widespread and most healthcare workers are not even aware of its implications.

In view of this, health providers should know when necessary to disclose patient information and to be aware of the implications on both sides such as patients being exposed to ridicule and disrespect.