Women’s health needs to be a closely guarded secret for all women. Women need to feel safe – that when they reveal their bodies and health conditions to their medical practitioners, that all data collected therein remains out of bounds to all except their doctor and themselves. Revenge porn is well known as a horrific social rape that damages many women – in the same context, MDR or Medical Data Revenge is a growing risk factor as computers can be hacked. But while digital information is at risk, at times things get printed out – scrips for example reveal a lot about a person – and therefore a woman’s medical clinic and also their pharmacist or chemist must be prepared to shred documents using high security shredding machines to protect every step of the medical process.
The privacy and confidentiality of a patient’s personal and health records should be treated with the highest degree of security. The Code of Conduct of Medical Doctors requires workers to protect the information of their clients, which is strengthened by the Privacy Act 1988 and the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 No 133. Personal details of an individual, including family history, can only be disclosed with their consent; hence, their records must be stored in a secure location.
Apart from being bound by statute, personal and health information leakage may cause any patient more than emotional distress. A woman doesn’t want a sudden exposure of her health history on her wedding day, which would definitely turn it into the highlight of her most coveted sacred union than her vows that could shutter her dream of happily ever after. As an ageing process, menopause is a natural stage in the life of a woman. They say it should be acceptable as it is inevitable; however, the effects that come with it make the whole transition depressing for some with a suicidal inclination. Menopausal is an embarrassing issue for some women going through it; moreover, cancers caused by menopause are a deeply personal matter, which should not be divulged in the open.
The sensitivity of every information entrusted to medical workers by a patient should be regarded with utmost confidentiality. Not only can mishandling and unintentional disclosure of the same lead to penalties, but worse, it can ruin the future of that person.