查看文章

Collusion in the healthcare setting occurs when a patient’s loved ones seek healthcare professionals’ cooperation in hiding or moderating the disclosure of a serious illness from the patient with capacity to make their own healthcare decisions. Collusion more commonly occurs in patients who are older, perceived as vulnerable and in need of protection from the harsh truth. When collusion occurs, the patient is excluded from the decision-making process, their autonomy is suspended, and advance care planning is not even an option. Collusion may be justifiable if the doctor exercises therapeutic privilege and withholds diagnostic and/or prognostic information from the patient because of concerns that the patient may be seriously harmed physically or psychologically, if informed. The highest court in Singapore in the recent case of Hii Chi Kok v Lucien London Ooi expanded the concept of therapeutic privilege. The …