Physician/patient relationship: any limit to confidentiality?

Abstract

This study which is anchored on the template of ethics observes the phenomenon of doctor/patient confidentiality and examines if there can be any limit. The determinative proposal for this study is brought to the fore when we consider the difficult choices which doctors sometimes make between protecting the personal interests of their patients and public interests on grounds of “higher public good”. On account of this, there have been divergent opinions on the most acceptable choice of any doctor under such circumstance. It is within this framework that the study is hoisted to explore if there exists any value-ladden gauge which regulates or guides the choice medical practitioners make when faced with such challenge. Within this purview, the study advances the position that health practioners, especially, doctors should align themselves to the codes of conduct that regulate the administration of Medicare.