North Cumbria District Control of Infection Committee: Communicable Disease Media Policy

For some cases of infectious disease, we are approached by the media for information that could potentially compromise patient confidentiality. Doctors are accountable to the General Medical Council (GMC) and nurses to the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (UKCC) for their professional practice, including matters of confidentiality.

The GMC has recently introduced strict guidance for doctors in relation to confidentiality and so as a rule, we will not disclose any information to the media about people suffering from, or thought to be suffering from, communicable disease.

In practice, this means that we will not be able to:

• confirm or deny rumours that someone is suffering from a communicable disease (even where no names are used there is a danger of breaching confidentiality)
• release test results
• give updates on the clinical conditions of patients.

Although we will not discuss clinical matters with the media, we are able to discuss public health aspects of communicable disease, such as the following:

• Levels of risk to immediate family members, school and work contacts etc.
• The role of exclusion, antibiotics, vaccination or other measures in the control of infection
• Advice to the public about symptoms and signs of infection
• Sources of further information for the public and media.

We follow protocols based on national guidelines for the control of communicanble disease. All guidance documents and policies for the control of infection in North Cumbria, and statistics relating to the incidence of the infection locally and nationally are available on this website.

14th September 2001