Is this a breach of patient confidentiality?

[Debbiedeedee]

If someone in a public setting was to say " We had a patient at work that was diagnosed with Covid and I had to go and see her that day?"

If you can reference any source that would be great. The question is in the black and white sense, I don't mean whether or not that should be said ethically :)

If they didn't name the patient then no. If they named them so they were identifiable, then yes.

There is no personally identifiable information in that statement to breach any confidentiality whatsoever. It's just a comment about a data point - nothing to link it to a person anyone could recognise.

No, as they can't be identified from that information thus nobody's confidentiality has been breached.

OP why do you think that statement breaks confidentiality?

If it had been at a time very few patients had Coronavirus, back in early March say, it could have been a breach because the patient could have been identifiable.

Now, a patient with CV is not unique, so unless other identifying information was provided, it is unlikely to have broken confidentiality.

Dear OP,

The statement does not contain direct personal, identifiable data but if the situation in the environment (due to small patient numbers for example) mean that it would be possible to identify a patient from it then potentially it could be a breech of confidentiality. This would also depend upon the context in which the information was shared. So if for example it was shared during a team meeting for staff involved in the care of that patient group then it wouldn’t be. If however it was shared in a public area with people who had no reasonable involvement in the patient’s care then it could be. Here are two useful sources for you:

Information commissioners guidance on what is personal data:

ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/key-definitions/what-is-personal-data/

Health and social care information centre guide to confidentiality in healthcare:

digital.nhs.uk/binaries/content/assets/legacy/pdf/0/d/hscic-guide-to-confidentiality_2013.pdf

I wouldn't have a problem with that.

No of course not.

In order to breach confidentiality the patient needs to be identifiable from what you have said.

No I wouldn’t say so. It’s no different to a doctor working on an oncology ward being asked what they did at work today and saying I cancer patients!

Op, what do you think ?

There may be some kind of bizarre weird circs where this is a breach, but I can't think of it.

Nope. It could be anyone!

No.

Assuming nothing that was said could identify the patient then there’s no breech.

No breach, no identify factors, no names or ovations.