Remember that your duty of confidentiality also applies to others who give you information about the patient..This means that even though next-of-kin or a friend of the patient give the doctor information, the doctor cannot give them patient information.
Written material regarding patients and treatment are legal documents. They are covered by the duty of confidentiality and must not fall astray in any circumstance. Such documents must not be removed from the hospital area, and must be kept in accordance with the department's rules. If a patient's record is lent to you, you have personal responsibility for keeping it as determined in the rules, that unauthorized persons do not gain access to the information in the record, and that it is returned to the department as soon as possible.
There is a Supreme Court judgement that establishes patients' right of inspection of their own record. This means that the patient him/herself or a legal person so authorized may read the record. In practice, a doctor must be present during the reading. The record must not be removed from the department, because the record is the hospital's property, but copies may be made of it. The senior consultant at each department sets the guidelines for execution of access to records. If a patient asks to read his/her record, you must forward this request to the doctor who is responsible for treating the patient.