Was my GP right to tell my parents?

I am sorry that you have experienced this upsetting incident, and I can understand how you will feel when a further consultation with your general practitioner becomes necessary. Your doctors, their staff and everyone else working for the NHS have a legal duty to maintain the highest level of confidentiality about patient information. (Anyone who receives confidential information about you, from the NHS, is also under legal duty of confidence.)

The NHS should not disclose information to third parties without your permission, and this includes information passed to relatives, friends and carers. The legal age of consent for heterosexual sex (and also same sex) in the UK is 16 years.

There are certain situations that require doctors to give information about you, even without your consent, to health and other authorities, and these include orders from a court, certain infectious diseases, addictions to hard drugs, arrangements for abortions, various police enquiries and new birth notifications – none of these seem to have been applicable from the information that you supplied.

You would certainly be within your rights to make a complaint. I would suggest that you make an appointment to speak with your surgery’s Practice Manager in order to explain the circumstances of your worries and concerns. It’s important to do this within six months of the time of the incident.