GPs concerned over separated parents seeking children's medical records
Children’s medical records are increasingly becoming a battleground for separated parents seeking access to them, it is claimed.
7:00AM GMT 04 Jan 2013
Comment
A sharp rise in the number of calls from doctors concerned about requests for children’s medical details has been reported by the Medical Protection Society (MPS), a leading medical defence organisation.
Most of the calls come from fathers who are divorced or separated from their children’s mother and who do not have the children living with them permanently.
GPs have reportedly been calling the MPS for advice over concerns about the fathers’ motivation for requesting the records.
In some cases men are thought to have been seeking access to the information as a way to find out where their former partner is living or whether she has a new partner.
The MPS said it has received around 800 calls over the past five years from GPs caught in the crossfire.
Of these, 179 were received in the last year, with calls from GPs worried about separated parents having access to children's records now among the most common sort received by the organisation.
It warned GPs not to get involved in disputes between separated couples.
Richard Stacey, medicolegal adviser for the MPS, said: “Most of the time, it is an entirely well intentioned approach, usually from an estranged father, just to be up to date as to what the current developments in a child’s treatment are.
“But you do get more vexed questions where the dispute is particularly acrimonious.
“Very often the parental dispute is such that one side is trying to find something in the medical records to hold against the other side.”
If a father approaches a GP saying he wants to see his child’s medical records because he fears the mother is abusing the child, for example, that “sets a child protection issue running,” he told The Guardian newspaper.
In some cases the mother might have been physically abused and living in a place of safety.
The father might then make a request to see his child’s medical records as a way of finding out the woman’s whereabouts, Mr Stacey warned.
In such cases, the GP would have to be aware of the possibility he might need to withhold information that could enable the man to establish where his ex-partner lives, he said.
The GP’s role in such situations could lead to conflict however, it was suggested.
Paula Hall, a relationship counsellor with Relate, said: “I think the problem is that an acrimonious divorce can result in couples arguing about almost anything and going to almost any lengths either to undermine the other or to try to find out what the other one is up to and avoid communication with each other. “Unfortunately emotions can run very high and that can over-ride sensible decision-making.”
The figures come at a time of year when many people begin legal proceedings to end their marriages after an unhappy or fractious Christmas.
Ministers are urging couples to seek an alternative to drawn-out and costly courtroom battles however, and want bickering husbands and wives to consider using third-party mediators.
