The therapeutic partnership: legal and ethical aspects of consumer health information.

Abstract

Patients' rights to information in the UK are based on a mixture of statute (including legislation on access to medical records) and case law (principally revolving around the issue of informed consent). These rights are set out in the Patient's Charter, which is itself a mixture of rights based on legislation and those enforced by management practice. Failure to provide adequate information to a patient could expose a medical practitioner to action for negligence or battery. Negligent information-giving could also expose consumer health information services to damages, for which the best defence is a high standard of professional competence and adequate professional indemnity insurance. Sharing information about the risks and benefits of treatment to enable truly informed decision making and consent by the patient is a key element of an ethical relationship between care giver and consumer--the therapeutic partnership.