>
>Have the authors of this part of the code considered that it may be 
>illegal in some areas to "require" a consent to share health 
>information? In Australia, I believe it would breach the Privacy Act 
>to require this consent


I think I am right in saying the same would be true in the UK.  No 
healthcare practitioner is ever obliged to share information about a 
client with any other HCP on confidentiality grounds, and that goes 
for practitioners inside and outside the public healthcare system. 
In some circumstances, an HCP might strongly advise a client to allow 
this sharing, but he/she has to allow the client's wishes to 
predominate.

When it comes to volunteer organisations like my own, the default 
position is confidentiality - I think the same is probably true of 
LLL, too. We are 'mother-centred' and we almost never share the 
encounter with anyone else. We have a protocol which we follow if we 
think the mother and/or baby is in danger.

We are encouraged to 'contradict' the mother's own doctor when 
appropriate! We do this by listening to what the mother tells us, and 
then sharing information with her about which we say 'you might like 
to share this with your doctor' . We  *don't*  say 'your doctor 
doesn't know a thing about breastfeeding' or anything disparaging, of 
course, still less, 'your doctor has it wrong'.

We have to do the 'share with your doctor' thing when the doc has 
told her stuff like
* wean or I won't prescribe antidepressants
* your milk turns to water when your baby is 6 mths/1 year/18 mths whatever
* mastitis? Wean immediately
* 10-day old babies should sleep through the night and if they don't, 
it means the mother  hasn't got enough milk


This is not 'doctor bashing'  - these are all true examples.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK

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