UK - What SWIM can and cannot tell the doctor?? (illegally taking ADHD meds)

[student_is_here]

HI guys...

do you know whether or not its safe to tell the doctor about drug use? I always assumed it was fine, but if you get caught with class B amphetamine (say, ADHD medication) for which you have no prescription... thats up to five years and an unlimited fine.

SWIM is finally in the process of diagnosing his adult ADHD , and he wants to discuss with his doctor this very subject. Swim, after he was 'laughed' at by two GPs got desperate and decided to try somone elses ADHD medication (adderall) to see if it would help. and it did, it worked very well indeed.

But might the doctor report swim to the police or somthing for illegally taking this class B medication? what are the chances of conviction, etc?

[Nagognog2]

Near zero chance of the report to police. Doctor/Patient Confidentiality rule comes into effect in the USA - at least. Not sure about the UK. Ask the doctor first. Or a barrister. The Law forum might be a good place for that.

[Jatelka]

Confidentiality cannot be broken in the UK either (unless the doctor feels there is serious/life threatening danger to another party)

[Bikelbees]

True v. unlikely to contact police, but I would add that patient records are not entirely confidential, anyone working in the practice can access it, computers and documents can be stolen, seized etc and the professional privilege enjoyed by doctors, priests and lawyers is constantly under attack. I was in one civil case where a guys whole medical history was dragged out because he was litigating against the police! If SWIY ever had a personal injury type claim the respondents could ask to see medical records. I would firstly ask SWIYourself if there is an over-riding medical imperative to tell SWIY's Dr, and if you do ask first if you could have an off-the -record discussion where there would be no record in SWIMY's notes that some nosy person might not turn up later, this can be done.

[Nacumen]

Originally Posted by Bikelbees

True v. unlikely to contact police, but I would add that patient records are not entirely confidential, anyone working in the practice can access it, computers and documents can be stolen, seized etc and the professional privilege enjoyed by doctors, priests and lawyers is constantly under attack. I was in one civil case where a guys whole medical history was dragged out because he was litigating against the police! If SWIY ever had a personal injury type claim the respondents could ask to see medical records. I would firstly ask SWIYourself if there is an over-riding medical imperative to tell SWIY's Dr, and if you do ask first if you could have an off-the -record discussion where there would be no record in SWIMY's notes that some nosy person might not turn up later, this can be done.

A few months back SWIM was in his doctor's office just sitting in one of the patient rooms. He looked over to the computer screen that was in plain, uncovered view and saw all of the prescriptions that the patient in the room before him was taking.

That's quality privacy right there.

[Fantasian]

It's also worth noting that if SWIY tells his doctor that he 'used drugs illegally' regardless of the reason, many doctors would see this as 'drug abuse' which might make it even more difficult in pursuing the very thing SWIY is trying to get.

[Jatelka]

Bikelbees: Re "off the record" discussion. As a doctor I would not be happy to not have documentation in the notes re patient contacts. How could this be resolved?

Documenting that this was discussed (with relevant details) but then also documenting that this should not be disclosed unless serious risk to 3rd party?

I have to confess, that I'd not considered this before

(Goes off to ponder)

[Bikelbees]

I know that SWIM didn't want his medication on his notes and his good Dr just gave them a private prescription and said he need not make any further note. I think that putting it down with the caveat that it should not be disclosed is no solution, its the recording of it thats the problem, this effectively highlights the incriminating part when one considers that others can access this data. With lawyers the notion of client confidentiality has been totally eroded with paranoid anti-terror legislation, money laundering etc. apart from the fact that client notes are often farmed out to secretarial services for typing, files are not locked up, cases are worked on by students etc.

[allyourbase]

the one problem with telling your doc about any "recreational activity" they usually put you down on the chart as a possibility for "drug seeking behavior" and that brand stays; permanently....to the point where someone close to swim was recently in a car wreck and was denied any but NSAID and dissociative anaesthesia/pain killers for recuperation, rather than proper pain killing narcotics.

[Pondlife]

Another thing to consider is that some UK patient data is stored centrally on the NHS "data spine", and there have been a number of examples of the government allowing access to databases between departments that was not originally planned.

I don't know if the sort of thing you mention would be stored on the spine (perhaps someone with a knowledge of NHS practice could comment), but I'd certainly want to ask the doc about it before divulging anything, and if possible ask that it not be stored centrally.

Here's a thread I posted recently about the DVLA's license revocation for drug users. You can just imagine the sort of problems this could cause if the DVLA were allowed to access the data spine in the future, and SWIY was flagged as a drug user.
http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38359

[Fantasian]

Originally Posted by pondlife

Another thing to consider is that some UK patient data is stored centrally on the NHS "data spine", and there have been a number of examples of the government allowing access to databases between departments that was not originally planned.

SWIF knows for sure between hospital trusts there is no computer linking access. One hospital must phone up another and request information. I think the same applies with GP's, physical notes must be transferred. This is why many drug abusers or users or even people whom dont like to be idenified can go to hospital, give a completely fake name and get treatment. SWIF's closest friend has done this with IV problems and had treatment during a 1 day stay at hospital.

[Sippin40oz]

SWIM is from the uk and has disclosed various recreational use to 3 doctors and was totally fine! One of these doctors worked exclusivly for the company SWIM worked for and not a single problem. Doctors are bound to strict rules about disclosing information about patients but the privacy issue is a worry. SWIM would say most doctors will advise u against doing it but its not there right to tell u what to do!

Its probably gd idea to tell the doctor in ur case though as drugs do effect people n different ways and might not be helping with adhd. Drugs do have side effects even if we pretend they dont! ) on the other hand SWIMs friend had quite bad adhd and he found that using coke calmed him down... Medical coke anyone!?