AUCKLAND DOCTOR

Hokitika Guardian, 31 March 1931, Page 5

AUCKLAND DOCTOR

CONFIDENTIAL CHART USED IN COURT. AUCKLAND, March 28. A statement that it was not fair that a member of the honorary staff at the Auckland Hospital who had access to a .patient’s charts should be able to use information denied to the solicitor for the defendant in an accident claim was made by Air Hall Skelton in a letter to the Auckland Hospital Board. Mr Skelton said that doctors should not be allowed to act in a dual capacity, and he considered that the use of information thus obtained was unjust. He quoted as an example' a case which he had i-eoently. The patient, his client had not been able to obtain a radiogram from the hospital and yet a doctor had been able to get the radiogram and use it for the defence, Mr Skelton asked whether any member of the' honorary staff could remove a radiogram for use in a case, and whether the board thought it proper that any honorary member of the medical staff should accept a retainer from the defendant in an accident claim when the information was confidential between the hoard and the patient. Dr C. E. Maguire, medical superintendent, said that the only time lw allowed the records to go out of the hospitals was by order of the Court. In tills case the doctor had evidently taken the law into his own hands. On the motion of the chairman, Mr W. Wallace, the matter was referred to the finance committee.