Youth Rights in Healthcare

If you’re under 18, you have rights in the NHS!

Patients have the right to:

CONFIDENTIALITY

Confidentiality in healthcare is about keeping things private between you and a healthcare professional. This way you can be confident in talking openly and honestly to staff so that they can provide you with the best care.

Your rights
Details of anything you say, anything written about your or any treatment you receive will be kept secret from your family, teachers, employers and any other organisations. You have the right to see your records and have them explained to you at any time. To do this, ask to see the “Practice Manager” at your GP Surgery or “Record Manager” at the Hospital.

Exceptions
Healthcare professionals have a duty to keep you and everyone else safe. This means sometimes they have to share information about you on a need-to-know basis. If they think that you are putting yourself or others in danger it is their job to share information with family, school or the relevant authorities. It is your right to be told if this is going to happen.

Consent to Treatment

Consent in healthcare is all about giving permission for things to happen to you. For example at times you may have to make choices on the treatment you receive.

Your rights
Everybody regardless of age is entitled to make their own decisions about things that happen to their own bodies. It’s often important to use our families to help make good decisions but ultimately it’s your body and you have the choice. You can even refuse treatment that you don’t want.

Exceptions
If a healthcare professional thinks you are unable to make informed decisions they have to find someone else to consent for you. This could be parents, doctors, courts, local authorities or an appointed proxy. (A person who is appointed, by you, to represent you). This will only happen on occasions where you do not have the capacity to make the decision yourself. Things like mental health conditions or substance misuse may contribute towards decreased capacity to make the right choices.

Feedback

Your feedback on services (whether good or bad) is essential for GP’s surgeries, dental surgeries, hospitals and clinks to know what’s working and what’s not. Without it they won’t be able to improve.

Your rights
Any person, no matter how young they are, has the right to give feedback without it affecting their services. You can complain about services you’re received in the past or are still receiving now. There are NO EXCEPTIONS.