Health Assessors undertaking court ordered assessments are granted access to material related to the alleged They do not have access to defendant’s confidential health records. Defendant’s consent must be obtained for their health information to be accessed. One hundred files of court ordered reports were audited, to see whether Health Assessors in a New Zealand regional forensic mental health service had obtained such consent. The results were categorised as follows:

Category 1: Consent was provided and health record accessed, c (n = 76).

Category 2: Consent was not provided and health information not accessed (n = 5) – included defendants deemed unfit to stand trial and unable to give informed consent (n = 2).

Category 3: Consent was not provided but health information accessed (n = 19).

Ethical and medico-legal implications of Health Assessors accessing defendant’s confidential health records are discussed. Recommendations are made for improving services so that public trust in the integrity of confidential information can be maintained.

进行法院命令评估的健康评估员被授予访问与被指控相关的材料的权限。他们无权访问被告的机密健康记录。必须获得被告的同意才能访问他们的健康信息。审查了一百份法院命令报告的文件，以了解新西兰地区法医心理健康服务的健康评估员是否获得了此类同意。结果分类如下：

第 1 类：提供了同意并访问了健康记录，c ( n = 76)。

第 2 类：未提供同意且未获取健康信息（n = 5）——包括被认为不适合受审且无法给予知情同意的被告（n = 2）。

第 3 类：未提供同意但访问了健康信息（n = 19）。

讨论了健康评估员访问被告机密健康记录的伦理和医学法律影响。提出了改进服务的建议，以保持公众对机密信息完整性的信任。