When approached by police for information about a patient, doctors need to consider their privacy obligations and determine whether they are obliged or permitted to disclose the information without the patient’s consent.

Disclosing information without a warrant or subpoena may constitute a privacy breach, as this case involving a GP illustrates.

Police visited Mr Z at home after a neighbourhood complaint. They considered him “highly excited and at times paranoid”.

He told them he had post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorder and severe pain.