Doctors favour legal changes to guarantee right of privacy of young patients

Teens should have right to visit doctors alone unaccompanied by their parents, a majority of doctors interviewed in a study published in the Malta Medical Journal reveals. 

In Malta there is currently no law which governs the right of young people aged between 15 and 18 to be treated by doctors alone, and to have their privacy protected from their parents or legal guardians.

Nor are doctors covered by a specific law which allows them to see and treat this age group.

Authored by Pierre Mallia, Bridget Ellul and Jurgen Abela, the study investigates the attitudes of family doctors towards consulting and treating young people.

It was based on a questionnaire distributed to 40 family doctors attached with the department of family medicine at the University of Malta.

The vast majority of the 29 doctors who replied to the questionnaire said that young persons would not talk about sensitive issues in front of their parents.

In fact, 23 doctors (79.3%) stated that a young person would not discuss sexual matters in front of parents, and 24 doctors (82.7%) replied that a young person would not discuss drug related problems in front of their parents. Twenty-six doctors (89.6%) agreed that a young person should have a right to speak to doctors alone.

Of these 26 doctors, 19 replied that they would not tell the parents that their children had visited the doctor while seven replied that they would always inform the parents. However, just over half of the doctors involved would encourage young people to always inform their parents. Only three doctors out of 29 stated that young person has no right to speak with doctors alone.

Although doctors are willing to discuss various topics with young persons alone, they find difficulty in providing treatment without parental presence.

At present young persons over 16 can still visit a doctor at the genitourinary clinic even when unaccompanied by a parent. Similar practice is slowly being introduced in other hospital clinics.

The study was meant to be a pilot study for a future study with a larger sample. But the significance and importance of the results were deemed to merit publication as a sentinel.

"Doctors are largely concerned about the law and are sometimes reluctant to see young adults alone even if they feel that they should be able to do so," the authors of the study said.