Ministry amends covid19 updates to ensure confidentiality

Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram on Thursday admitted that perhaps the Health Ministry was too hasty when sharing personal details about the country’s first covid19 patient.

“With the first cast the country would have (been waiting), I suppose. I think we would have given out too much. We are walking a thin line with patient confidentiality,” the CMO said at the regular post-Cabinet media briefing at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s. He was responding to questions about the amount of information in ministry updates about patients and their possible contact history. “The only person who is supposed to get the result of an ill patient is the patient himself or direct relatives so to give out anything beyond that would be an identifier of the patient should not be done and I think going forward our information is sufficient to say number of cases we have thus far is positive without an identifier.”

He said the amount of information in subsequent releases was sufficient to apprise the public while maintaining that patient confidentiality. “We are living in a small society where people talk and know who their neighbours are and for the benefits of the patients and their families we want to ensure their safety and the safety of the population and we want to keep the information to a minimum.”

The ministry will also be amending the way it releases statements. Instead of immediate notice to the public once cases are confirmed, the ministry will now send updates at 10 am and 4 pm. The change, the ministry said in a statement was on the advice of the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO, the regional arm of the World Health Organisation), the CMO and international patient advocacy groups.

The updates will give the number of cases and the status of patients taking into account their right to patient confidentiality. The first statement on the new schedule was issued at 4 pm Thursday and advised that the number of positive cases in Trinidad remains at nine. The number of samples submitted to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (Carpha) for covid19 testing was 155.

It also reminded people to practice proper hygiene. Carpha has the only lab that is certified to test samples for covid19 and therefore, it is the only lab that can confirm positive or negative results of the samples. Parasram noted that testing is done on suspected cases or cases where there is a high probability of infection.

A suspected case is anybody with a recent travel history and critical signs or symptoms or anyone who would have had a relation close to them with a travel history and then had contact, so exposure. It also includes anyone who has had close contact with a positive case and anyone who would have had close contact with a suspected case, as deemed by a health care professional.

These guidelines, he said, were in accordance with WHO regulations. Parasram added that patients in self-quarantine or are awaiting results and have symptoms, should avoid the class of drugs called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, including ibuprofen, and stick to paracetamol to reduce fever.