Patient Physician Confidentiality

The BCCA has refused an order on behalf of the plaintiff in a class action for the names and contact information of patients  from a large number of physicians who may have injected their patients  with  Dermalive.  The physicians were not parties to the class action.  The objective of the application was to facilitate giving notice of the class action to people who may be members of the class. 

The Court  reviewed 2 decisions of the SCC on the special place of confidentiality in the physician patient relationship in Canada:  Halls v. Mitchell [1928] S.C.R. 125 and McInerney v. MacDonald [1992] 2 S.C.R. 138, and concluded that although the value of redress through the justice system is significant....one cannot say that recovery of money trumps the rights of the patient to keep private both the nature of medical services received and contact information held by the physician. (para 18)

Logan v. Dermatech et al  2013 BCCA 49