The words to use
- Public interest disclosure
- Sharing confidential information without consent because the benefit, usually preventing serious harm or serious crime, outweighs the harm to the patient and to trust in doctors.
- Notifiable disease
- A disease doctors must report to the local authority on reasonable suspicion, under the Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010. Measles is notifiable; HIV is not.
- Minimum necessary disclosure
- Sharing only the information that is needed, only with the person or body that can act on it, rather than the whole record.
- Duty to notify the DVLA
- The legal duty on a licence holder to tell the DVLA about a condition that may affect safe driving. The doctor advises, and acts only if the patient won't.
