Confidentiality and medical records.

Protecting confidential information disclosed to doctors has been one of the most important ethical traditions of the medical profession. However, the patient's right to such confidentiality is threatened because it is legally unclear how far ownership by Government of the paper on which NHS records are kept or of the computer system in which they are stored confers right of access.We hope the medical profession will examine this problem urgently and offer some suggestions as to how patients' confidences can continue to be protected in the future.