Clinical: Practice dilemma - Mother asks for her daughter's results.

The Dilemma: An endocervical swab result comes back from the laboratory showing one of your patients has chlamydia and needs to come in for treatment. The patient is the daughter of one of your receptionists, and she asks you what her daughter's result shows. She tells you that she was aware her daughter had had the test and reassures you that her daughter would not mind her knowing. What should you tell her?

A GP's response

Dr Alison Glenesk is a GP trainer in Aberdeen

There is really only one solution.

GMC guidance allows us to breach confidentiality under exceptional circumstances, but this is not one of them. In the case above, the rules of confidentiality are absolute and cannot be broken.

It is possible, though unlikely, that my patient is indeed happy for her mother to collect her results. However, I am …