All staff in the NHS have a legal, ethical and contractual obligation to confidentiality and must ensure they act appropriately to protect patient information against improper disclosure.
The duty of confidentiality applies to all patients regardless of race, gender, social class, age, religion, sexual orientation and disability or medical condition.
It could be deemed to be gross misconduct if any staff member is found to be in breech of the above points.
Confidentiality extends to family members, therefore medical information relating to you will not be divulged to a family member without your written consent (eg we cannot give information regarding appointment times or test results to your spouse or other family members without your prior written consent).