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Showing papers by "Martin J. Blaser published in 1978"


Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jul 1978-BMJ
TL;DR: The fact that it is no longer obligatory for children to be examined by school medical officers so that information is being distributed to people with whom they may never have any professional relationship raises considerable ethical problems.
Abstract: and then to school medical officers without the prior knowledge and consent of the referring general practitioner. I further understand that this practice is not peculiar to my district. This raises considerable ethical problems, as I am sure that in certain circumstances the information may be considered to be of a highly confidential nature. There is no guarantee of security of records kept by school medical officers and I am sure that the parents are not aware of the dissemination of information about their children. An important point is the fact that it is no longer obligatory for children to be examined by school medical officers so that information about these children is being distributed to people with whom they may never have any professional relationship. We are living at a time in which there is increasing concern about personal liberties and privacy and I would like to have the response of other practitioners about what I feel is a rather sinister procedure.

22 citations