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Case for mandatory reporting of ‘body packers’
Author(s) -
Mitra Biswadev,
Smit De Villiers,
O'Shea William P
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
emergency medicine australasia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.602
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1742-6723
pISSN - 1742-6731
DOI - 10.1111/1742-6723.12012
Subject(s) - confidentiality , medicine , statutory law , law enforcement , enforcement , patient confidentiality , medical emergency , law , internet privacy , political science , computer science
Body packing is the term used to describe the ingestion of illicit substances for transport across control lines. Where the diagnosis of body packing is made independently in the ED , the issue of reporting the case to law enforcement officials poses a difficult scenario given the legal obligations of patient confidentiality. We describe a case of a body packer brought into the ED and subsequently reported to the police. The conflicts between patient confidentiality versus statutory exceptions to confidentiality along with case law regarding this scenario are discussed.