expected to be as ample as those available in the casualty department of a
general hospital.'InPhelpsv.Hillingdon LBC/1998) it was said that the only duty of a medical rescuer' was not tonegligently create further danger or make the... situation
worse'. What will prove of importance is that N adequately communicates, to
anyone else rendering treatment to V, the steps which she has taken and that she
arranges for the necessary specialist care as expeditiously as possible.
8.8 Scarce resources and professional responsibility
Questions relating to the relevant standard of care are also significant for nurses in
another context. As stated above, the law demands no more than a reasonable
standard of care rather than standards of treatment which are at the cutting edge of
medical science. But what should nurses do if they become convinced that patients
are facing unacceptable levels of risk because the regime of treatment regularly
falls short of reasonable standards? Two problems may arise for the nurse who
decides to seek publicity to draw to the attention of the public the inadequacy of
the care offered. The first is that the identification of a particular patient may
breach principles of medical confidentiality. In addition, any public disclosure
might amount to a breach of the contract of employment.
The UKCC's Guidelines for Professional Practice /1996) do not suggest an
absolute duty of professional confidence. Although clause 10 of the Code of
Professional Conduct instructs the nurse to protect all confidential information
concerning patients and clients... and make disclosures only with consent.. .' the
Guidelines allow for exceptional circumstances' in which confidentiality must give way to disclosure upon a court order or where this is necessary in the public interest. This is in accordance with the general law, although following the Human Rights Act 1998 English law will have to conform with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the right to respect for private and family life. In Attorney Generalv.Guardian Newspaper /No. 2)/1990) Lord Goff stated that although the basis of the law's protection of confidence is that there is a public
interest that confidence should be preserved and protected by law, nevertheless,
that public interest may be outweighed by some of the countervailing public
interest which favours disclosure'. However, inXHealth Authorityv.Y/1988) 2 All
ER 648 any public interest in the disclosure of the fact that two practising doctors
were being treated as AIDS patients was outweighed by the general public interest
in retaining the confidentiality of AIDS related information on a patient's file. The
High Court in this case intervened to restrain the publication of the disclosure
when leaked by employees.
However, in the case ofWv.Egdell and Others/1990) a consultant psychiatrist
was employed by a patient's solicitor to prepare a report on the patient for use in
the consideration of the patient's release or transfer from a secure hospital. When
no use was made of that report /which highlighted the long-standing nature, not
previously drawn to the authorities' attention, of W's interest in home-made
144 NursingLawandEthics