id like to no if your silly enuff to keep dwa reps without a licence ,and are unlucky enuff to get tagged then get taken to hosptial. Would you be getting in trouble with the law if they find out you have no licence? if you come out alive that is .....

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well really the NHS are there to treat everyone without questions except certain circumstances like gun shot wounds and possibly now knife wounds where they are legally obliged to inform the police, but as far as I know envenomation is not one of those situations and there has to be a certain amount of data protection, as long as they didnt that you were a danger to anyone else, I could be completely wrong though tbh

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You are spot on!

If the hospital informed the police, they'd be contravening the data protection act and the doctor/nurse invloved would be breaking their professional code of conduct.

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http://www.shellshack.co.uk

would be silly to take the risk in any case .... but then people do

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People do lots of silly things!

Keeping venomous snakes is quite sensible compared to some that end up in hospital!

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http://www.shellshack.co.uk

Sorry to contradict you (so late after the thread started too) but your wrong. This is my area of work and although your correct to state hospitals are bound by confidentiality, they are also obliged to inform the police of anything that poses a public risk. A venomous snake bite would pose a serious enough risk for them to breach confidentiallity in the interest of public safety. If they neglected to tell the police they could be held liable for endangering public safety....

Sorry to contradict you (so late after the thread started too) but your wrong. This is my area of work and although your correct to state hospitals are bound by confidentiality, they are also obliged to inform the police of anything that poses a public risk. A venomous snake bite would pose a serious enough risk for them to breach confidentiallity in the interest of public safety. If they neglected to tell the police they could be held liable for endangering public safety....

they have only just changed the laws on stabbings though havnt they?

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I still disagree with you. I work in a hospital (in A&E) a lot of the time and other than gunshot wounds, and now stabbings, there is no obligation to tell the police anything. If the clinician in question thought there was a risk to public health, then they would have to make a decision based on their own judgement, but how would they know you didn't have a DWA anyway? I for one wouldn't be asking to see it before administering treatment, and most hospital staff wouldn't even be aware it existed.

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http://www.shellshack.co.uk

Then your talking a different ball game .... if the staff don't know thats fair enough but it's their job to find out so they can administer anti venom .... if it comes to light that it is DWA (which a toxicology report would show) Then they have to say so anyway. The policy on stabbings is irrelevent ... your talking about a dangerous venomous reptile, Once it comes to light it needs to be tracked down and that puts a duty on the doctor to inform the police ... you wouldn't expect a doctor to keep quiet about a lion attack on a patient when there could be one roaming the streets... I work for the police i can assure you they are obliged to divulge the info