A rock and a hard place? Ministry of Defence | Defence News | MOD confirms loss of recruitment data

[James Cox]

On 18 Feb 2008, at 15:55, Dr Adrian Midgley (In the office) wrote:

> James Cox wrote:
>> There are strong medical reasons why such information is necessary.  
>> Next of kin, anyone?
> That would:-
> a) require the contact details of the next of kin
> b) imply permission to make contact with someone at the address  
> given for some reasons.

I don't remember any in-patient procedure i've had (or come to think  
of it, anyone in my family either) where next of kin was not  
requested. Again, talking in simple terms, given that there's a risk  
of death in any procedure etc, it's usually important to let someone  
know....

Permission is taken to be implicit. It's typically a requirement of  
the individual to make preferences known explicitly. The fact that the  
medi-center ignored an _explicit_ instruction from the patient is why  
the case turned out the way it did.

Though it's the implied behaviour that perhaps needs review, and is  
what we were debating a month ago when this thread was happening. :)

-james