What do we mean by confidential ? *

Doctors, nurses and other health workers are not allowed to give out information about you without your consent, unless they think you are in danger. If you are under 16, doctors and other workers still have to keep what is said private. Sometimes, a health worker may decide that a patient is not mature enough to make decisions about their treatment, but the consultation can still be confidential.

In exceptional circumstances a health worker might decide they needed to pass on information about a patient to someone else. For example, a doctor might suspect their patient was being seriously hurt in some way. Even so, they would not normally pass on any information without first discussing it with their patient. Government guidance for workers in England means that they are likely to be more worried about young people under 13 who are having sex and might think it would be in the young person's best interest to get some extra help from a social worker.

(*Taken from www.brook.org.uk)