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Views & Reviews No Holds Barred

Margaret McCartney: Disrespecting confidentiality isn’t the answer to FGM

BMJ 2015; 351 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h5830 (Published 12 November 2015) Cite this as: BMJ 2015;351:h5830
  1. Margaret McCartney, general practitioner, Glasgow
  1. margaret{at}margaretmccartney.com

On 31 October new provisions of the Serious Crime Act came into force in England and Wales. This new law compels healthcare professionals, social workers, and teachers to report to the police any cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) in girls or women who appear to have had the procedure before age 18.1

The law is one of several interventions that the government has offered to try to reduce such abuse. These include guidance on commissioning new services for women, money for international development, and the ability for courts to charge guardians for failing to protect girls from FGM. And doctors must now take part in the Department of Health’s “enhanced data collection” on FGM. This means that we must submit information that identifies patients, …

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