Right to Privacy

Overview

The protection of personal information of patients and compulsory secrecy of the medical staff are very up-to-date issues, and to breach the laws means facing high sanctions. It is necessary for a doctor to know to whom he can disclose information. If the doctor does not obtain permission from the patient then he may provide information to the police only with permission from the court. The only exception is the case when the doctor acts according to the legal duty to report information about the time and place of provided medical treatment to a person who is being searched after by the police. The most common cases of breaching the compulsory secrecy are interactions during ward rounds with other co-patients and giving information over the phone to persons whose identity cannot be verified. In the event of a patient running away from the health facility and if there is a suspicion that his life may be threatened, the doctor is obliged to inform the Police of CR and a significant other who is entitled to obtain information and is recorded in the medical documentation, if there is one and it is possible to contact them.

Key words:
medicine – law – patient – right to privacy