The British Medical Association has called for the names and details of health care practitioners involved in sensitive services to
be kept off information-sharing databases.

The BMA says there should be a "blanket omission" on including details of practitioners working in child and adolescent mental health services, psychotherapy, drugs or alcohol misuse, sexual health, HIV and teenage pregnancy.

The association's stance emphasises the gulf that exists between health care practitioners and the government on information-sharing, as the consultation closed on the databases outlined in the Children Act 2004.

The government is proposing that details of practitioners in targeted and specialist services should be put on the database only with the consent of the child, young person, parent or carer. However, it adds that "in exceptional circumstances" professionals can add their details to the database in spite of a lack of consent if they judge that it is in the best interests of the child.

The BMA said these proposals were "not acceptable" for practitioners working in sensitive health services. Even if their details were added with consent, it feared it could create a perception of an erosion of confidentiality that could deter young people from accessing services.

It is also concerned that practitioners might subsequently decide to share additional information with other professionals detailed on the database without explicit consent from a child to do so.

It proposes in its place a system where sensitive health services practitioners could access a child's record to see who else was involved in their care.

This would enable them to contact the most appropriate practitioner if they had any concerns, without identifying themselves to all professionals in contact with that child. It highlights GPs as being the most likely to fit this role.

By contrast, the Local Government Association's submission argues that details of all practitioners in sensitive services should be included on the database but should only be accessible to "essential practitioners", as determined in the regulations. This group could include a lead professional or a child protection social worker.

The fact that the child or young person is in contact with sensitive services, however, should be accessible to all, it adds.