Duty of care

ABC v St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust and Others [2020] EWHC 455 (QB)

The High Court has considered the need to balance a patient’s right to confidentiality with the interests of his daughter in being informed about a devastating genetic condition which she might have inherited from him. This tragic case concerned a situation in which the daughter of a patient detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 argued that the defendants had been in breach of a duty of care allegedly owed to her, to balance her interest in being informed about her father’s diagnosis of Huntington’s Disease against the duty of confidentiality that it owed to him, and the public interest in maintaining confidentiality. At an early stage in the proceedings, the defendants had applied to strike out the claim on the ground that it disclosed no reasonable cause of action. The Court of Appeal had overturned a decision of the High Court on that issue and had ordered that the matter should proceed to trial (ABC v St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust and Others [2017] EWCA Civ 336; [2017] Med LR 368).