The Duty of Confidence

1. All NHS Bodies and those carrying out functions on behalf of the NHS have a duty of confidence to patients and a duty to support professional ethical standards of confidentiality.
2. Everyone working for or with the NHS records, handles, stores or otherwise comes across information that is capable of identifying individual patients. All have a personal duty of confidence to patients and to his/her employer.
3. The duty of confidence is conferred by common law, statute, contract of employment, disciplinary codes and policies (of which this is one) and professional registration.