HIPAA laws in England???

I was just wondering are there HIPAA laws in England??? If not are there any similar laws that prevent just anyone from acquiring protected health information (PHI) on a patient. As the law goes in the states, not just anyone can gain access to a person's PHI without a valid written release form signed by the patient.Also hospital staff are not authorized to release information via telephone about the condition and or diagnosis of a patient that has been in that facility even if it is the patient calling themselves. I recently got a complaint from a guy in england who was calling to ask the condition of his brother who was here at the hospital i work at in the U.S. Both he and his brother are from England. and he went on a tagent about how Americans are idiots and how he didn't understand why i couldn't release that information on his brother. blah blah blah... long story short he was furious!!! i was just wondering if this is just a U.S. thing.