Confidentiality and consent

The General Medical Council (GMC) has published its first guidance on the treatment of children up to the age of eighteen. The guidelines were drawn up after GMC interviews with hundreds of young people disclosed that most felt they were not taken seriously by their GPs. The guidelines presume that teenagers can consent to treatment, or to refuse it, once they are 16 but adds that younger children may also be mature enough to have the capacity to consent. It advises that children of any age should be treated confidentially and allowed to be consulted alone and if a doctor thinks a child is capable of making its own decisions, he or she should be given the opportunity to refuse treatment regardless of what the parents want.

The guidelines say patient confidentiality should be the same for children as it is for adults, but that doctors should tell the authorities about children under 13 who are engaged in sexual activity or at risk of abuse.

The Mail's coverage features the headline "Doctors' code of silence to cover under-age sex" and reports that Stephen Green of Christian Voice has described the guidance as "wicked". Research carried out by Brook, the young people's sexual advice service, found that confidentiality fears deter a quarter of sexually active under-16s from seeking medical advice.

The guidance can be downloaded from http://www.gmc-uk.org/ (Independent, 28 September 2007, p23; Mail, 28 September 2007, p6; Telegraph, 28 September 2007, p17; Times, 28 September 2007, p4)