Patients can easily secretly record telehealth consults, which they can use later in disciplinary proceedings, a group of doctors is warning.

Writing in the Medical Journal of Australia the group from a number of Melbourne healthcare organisations say in the pandemic-fuelled rush to adopt telehealth several ethical and legal issues have been overlooked. 

This includes who views recorded consults, how they’re used in the future and how and where they’re stored, write the authors led by Dr Caitlin Farmer, a radiology registrar at Monash Health and Dr Patrick Mahar, a dermatologist at Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. 

“In certain jurisdictions, patients can secretly record a consultation without the consent of the clinician and this recording may be used in legal or disciplinary proceedings,” they warn.