Campaign to assure on youngster’s confidentiality

A CAMPAIGN to raise awareness of the right of children to speak to their doctor in confidence was launched in Inverness yesterday.

The We Keep it Zipped initiative was prompted by concerns that young people fear their privacy will not be respected if they visit a GP.

The poster aims to explode that myth by assuring under-16s that confidentiality would only be broken if an NHS health professional deems the child at potential risk of serious harm.

Dr Annie Griffiths, a GP at The Surgery in Southside Road, Inverness, said: “It can be difficult to get the message across to young people, but this project will, hopefully, show them that they can visit a doctor and that confidentiality will not be broken.”

Dr Griffiths said the reassurance would be particularly comforting to youngsters living in small communities in the Highlands, where the local GP may be known to the child’s parents.

Gemma Mackintosh, who is the chairman of Haggeye, the forum for blind and partially-sighted young people in Scotland, and was consulted on the design of the posters, said: “My role was to advise the NHS on how to make the poster as accessible as possible for visually-impaired people.”

The 16-year-old Inverness College student added: “Young people should be able to go to their doctor and know that nobody else is going to know about it.”

The poster, which features a green rabbit with its mouth zipped, says NHS staff will always talk to young patients about sharing information if they fear the child is at risk of serious harm.