Where would I be without Dodge who passes on the most intersting information and asks the most interesting questions. This time he’s passed a link to a article on patient confidentiality:

Court: Patient’s conversation with EMT not privileged

and asked:

“I was perusing one of the paramedic pages and came across an article concerning patient doctor privilege as it pertains to paramedics acting under the control of doctors, while this is an American case that was adjudicated in America I did find it interesting as to what is constituted as privileged information. I would have assumed privileged information as it pertains to medical treatment would be medical information not to the causation of an accident in this case the use of illicit drugs. But again this would not apply to Australian paramedics/officers as they work to medical protocols or clinical practice guidelines. But it does pose the underlying question as to what would be considered privileged and discloseable information.”

I’ve written an answer, but it’s too long to put here, so it is in this pdf document: paramedic evidence.

Thank you again Dodge, for raising such interesting issues.

Michael Eburn
4 June 2011