Safeguarding confidential patient information is the responsibility of all NHS staff. Vanbrugh Group Practice will ensure that your confidentiality is respected and maintained at all times in the following ways:
- Confidentiality means that when you see a doctor or nurse at the practice for any health issue, including sexual health, the doctor or nurse will not share the information you give them with anyone else, provided we think you are ‘competent to consent’ to the treatment (competent to consent means that you are fully capable of understanding the treatment and any possible consequences).
- Doctors and nurses seeing young people for sexual health information, advice or treatment will ask you if you wish to inform a parent, carer or other trusted adult. However, if you do not wish to inform an adult, we will respect your wishes and still offer you treatment.
- A doctor, nurse or other health professional may only break confidentiality if they think that you or someone else is at significant risk of harm. However, they will not break confidentiality without informing you first. This means that if you see a doctor or nurse at the practice for personal issues, sexual health information and advice, contraception, screening for sexually transmitted infections (STI’s), or information and referral for abortion we will see you, even if you are under 16, without having to inform your parents or carers.