Letter to the editor. Law change is required for us to be able to trust the care

The Peth debate reveals a mutual lack of confidence between authorities (health care included) and individual citizens. The root cause of this is that the law not only allows but also provides that doctors must in some cases report the health of individual citizens to the authority.

In a democratic society, it must be a matter of course that a patient’s health condition only affects the patient and the doctor. To disclose information without the patient’s permit must be strictly illegal. If a doctor assesses that a patient is not suitable as a driver, only the patient should be informed. Society must trust that the patient subsequently acts correctly.

The lack of trust can have devastating consequences. Those who are most affected are all those who have now discovered that health care confidentiality does not exist and therefore do not dare to seek medical attention on time. Several of these are at risk of meeting a far too early death.

In order to restore confidence, it is necessary for the government to quickly initiate a change in the law. It is also likely that one and another manager within both the Swedish Transport Agency and the health care can step aside.

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