Published 23 September 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1794
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1794

News

Judge allows disclosure of workers’ medical records after death

Clare Dyer

1 BMJ

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A High Court judge in London ruled last week that doctors’ duty of confidentiality "arguably" survives a patient’s death but gave the go ahead "in the public interest" for the disclosure of medical records of dead nuclear plant workers to an independent inquiry.

The order by Mr Justice Foskett removed a barrier to the release of the records of dead workers to the public inquiry looking into the removal of hearts, lungs, and other organs from the bodies of employees in the nuclear industry for testing for plutonium after their deaths.

The inquiry, conducted by Michael Redfern QC, was set up by the government last year after it emerged that the consent of next of kin might not have been obtained for the body parts of former workers at Sellafield to be removed and analysed.

The inquiry covers workers at Sellafield who died between November 1962 and August 1991, and . . . [Full text of this article]


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