Patients Rights

Osnovni cilj izrade ove studije je da kroz analizu postojećeg stanja ukažemo na probleme zdravstvenog sistema Crne Gore, i uz to da kroz analizu zakonodavstva zemalja u okruženju (Hrvatske kao članice EU, i Srbije kao kandidata za članstvo) pružimo jasne preporuke za njegovo poboljšanje. Posebnu pažnju posvetili smo analizi rada zaštitinika prava pacijenata, i percepciji građana o kvalitetu zdravstvenog sistema na osnovu podataka koje smo dobili kroz istraživanje i sprovođenje ispitivanja javnog mnjenja, pružanja besplatne pravne pomoći, anonimnih prijava kršenja prava pacijenata putem prve web i mobilne aplikacije, ali i kroz stalnu komunikaciju sa relevantnim institucijama.

Prawo do opieki duszpasterskiej jest jednym z podstawowych praw pacjenta. Obejmuje ono szereg szczegółowych uprawnień, w tym swobodę praktykowania przez pacjenta swojej religii w warunkach hospitalizacji, prawo dostępu do kapelana i duchowego oraz do realizowanych przez niego posług, a także prawo do opieki duszpasterskiej w razie nagłego pogorszenia stanu zdrowia i zagrożenia życia1. Zagadnienia związane z pełną realizacją przez pacjenta swojego zdrowia, w tym zdrowia duchowego, stanowią zatem materię niezwykle wrażliwą i delikatną.

El CCCN incorpora una categoría de la responsabilidad civil especial relacionada con el ejercicio profesional, que prevé la aplicación de una responsabilidad objetiva cuando se hubiera comprometido un resultado.
El presente trabajo explora la posible configuración de una responsabilidad objetiva del profesional médico basada en el daño provocado por el incumplimiento de una obligación de resultado en los supuestos de omisión de la confección y la incompletitud de la historia clínica. Para ello se ha analizado la normativa aplicable a la historia clínica y a las obligaciones de hacer y de resultado, así como la opinión doctrinaria y jurisprudencial relativa a la responsabilidad profesional médica, particularmente aquella originada con posterioridad a la entrada en vigencia de la legislación especial relacionada con la historia clínica a través de la Ley Nº 26.529.
Se concluye afirmando la posible aplicación de responsabilidad objetiva al profesional médico en diversos supuestos en los que el daño resarcible estuviera relacionado de manera directa e indirecta con el incumplimiento de la obligatoriedad de la confección y de los atributos de la historia clínica.
Palabras clave: responsabilidad civil – responsabilidad médica – responsabilidad objetiva – historia clínica – ley 26.529

The new Civil and Commercial Code incorporates a category of special civil liability related to professional practice, which provides for the application of strict liability when a result has been compromised.
The present study explores the possible configuration of an objective responsibility of the medical professional based on the damage caused by the non-fulfillment of an obligation of result in cases of omission of the confection and incompleteness of the clinical records. For this purpose, the author analyzed the regulations applicable to the medical
records and the obligations to do and those of result, as well as the doctrinal and jurisprudential opinion regarding medical professional responsibility, particularly the originated after the entry into force of the related special legislation through Law No. 26,529.
It concludes affirming the possible application of objective responsibility to the medical professional in various cases in which compensable damages were directly and indirectly related to noncompliance with the compulsory nature of the confection and the attributes of the medical record.
Keywords: civil liability - medical liability - objective liability - medical record - Law # 26,529

The Sustainable Development Goals adopted by world leaders on September 25, 2015, aimed to end poverty and hunger, promote gender equity, empower women and girls, and ensure human dignity and equality by all human beings in a healthy environment. These development goals were premised on international human rights norms and institutions, thereby acknowledging the relevance of human rights in achieving each goal. Particularly, sustainable development goal 3, whose objective is to achieve universal health coverage, enhance healthy lives, and promote well-being for all, implicitly recognizes the right to health as crucial. Our focus in this paper is to discuss how promoting patients’ rights and enhancing effective nurse-patient communication in the healthcare setting is a significant and necessary way to achieve universal health coverage. Through a critical review of the empirical research evidence, we demonstrated that enhancing patients’ rights and effect nurse-patient communication w...

Patients’ rights have been formulated in a number of documents and guidelines from various international bodies. Laws and declarations on patients’ rights do not automatically make health care safer, but can help to empower patients. Empowered patients are in a better position to manage their own health and health care and to participate in efforts to improve safety. The report presents an overview of legal aspects influencing patient safety and describes examples of patient involvement. It highlights the need to strengthen a continuum of information between various levels of care, including patient experiences, health literacy and engagement. The work is expected to contribute to the wider process of evidence collation aimed at finding efficient ways to build realistic and informed expectations of health care, while encouraging patients to be vigilant and knowledgeable to ensure maximum safety standards. Recommendations are formulated with respect to the macro, meso and micro levels of health service delivery.

Throughout history, patients of psychiatric institutions were often treated improperly. These individuals were isolated, humiliated and excluded. On the other hand treatment frequently contravenes the subjective/agentrelative positions and rights of people with mental disorders in implementing so-called positive changes. The perception of improper handling of cited group of patients sometimes constituted the beginning stage of the activities, aimed at taking responsible care of people with schizophrenia or depression. That concern also has a unique character, involving the necessity to continue to take coercive action against the patient. The paper is intended to depict the past and current situation of psychiatric institution patients. It will also present the fundamental principles that currently exist for the protection of the rights of people treated in these hospitals.

In Milan Kundera’s novel Farewell Waltz, Doctor Skreta, a consultant at a
Czechoslovakian centre for the treatment of female infertility, violates many of his patients’ rights: he is indifferent to their needs, neglects confidentiality, and is a manipulator who conducts his career as a doctor in a seriously ethically dubious way. This article claims that the cause of Skreta’s unethical conduct is his tendency to generalization and holism. He projects his moral concerns onto the wrong ontological level, paying no attention to single individuals but to an abstraction called ‘humanity.’ The same fundamental flaw in Dr. Skreta will be germane to criticisms of utilitarianism and eugenics. In fact, Skreta reveals himself to be a secret promoter of eugenics. Kundera’s novel maintains that a very ethically-involved branch of medicine could be a trap, in the case where one is unable to have the well-being of single individuals at heart, and is only morally concerned about abstract super-individual entities like ‘humanity.’

Estudio minucioso y crítico de la regulación contenida en la Ley 41/2002 de 14 de
noviembre, básica reguladora de la autonomía del paciente y derechos y obligaciones en materia de información
clínica, recientemente aprobada cuando este tuvo lugar. Una aportación importante es la relación de la norma
nacional con las distintas regulaciones autonómicas existentes y en vigor cuando aquella vio la luz.

colleagues look at the role of nurses, their employers and policy makers in ensuring that patients can exercise their right to vote Summary Healthcare organisations and nurse leaders have an important role in promoting patients' right to vote, through the development of policy guidelines, integrated networking and innovative practice. Patients' mental capacity to vote is usually assessed by nurses, who must therefore be aware of clients' voting rights and if the right resources are in place to help them do so. Patients' rights, as citizens, are recognised in law and in professional guidelines, but more needs to be done to protect their voting rights. There should also be better access to transport and family support, and more flexible electoral procedures. This article reviews the literature on promoting patients' participation in local and general elections and suggests that their voting rights should be endorsed by organisations and nurse leaders through policy guidelines and a flexible and proactive nursing approach to participation.

Introduction
As a response to the anti-malarial drug resistance situation, the
World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that treatment
policies for falciparum malaria  in all countries experiencing
resistance to monotherapies should be combination therapies,
preferably those containing an arteminisin derivative (ACT-artemisinin-based combination therapy).
Methodology
A retrospective quantitative study was designed to examine case
records of patients treated for malaria in a tertiary health hospital
in Jos, Northern part of Nigeria between August and December
2012. Questionaires were also distributed to doctors working
within the hospital environment. Data on demographic, clinical
features of disease, diagnostic procedures and drug administration
were collected from the patients' records.
Results
Case record files of 130 patients were selected, 80.7% of the
patients were prescribed antimalarial drugs. 55.2% of patients
admitted for malaria were males, 44.8% were between 21-50 years
of age. Fever (35.2%) was the most common presenting symptom,
71.4% of the patients had diagnostic blood slides. Antimalarial
drugs were prescribed for malaria and malaria associated with
other disease conditions, artemisinin and lumefantrine was the
most prescribed antimalarial agent. 44.0% of these drugs were
prescribed by trade names, 29.0% were administered orally. The
most antimalarial drug prescribed for prevention of malaria in
pregnant women was sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, all the
practitioners followed current WHO guidelines  , half of the
clinicians would prescribe parenteral antimalarial drugs for severe
and cerebral malaria, laboratory and clinical assessment were used
for malaria diagnosis, 71.4% of the physicians adhered to hospital
guidelines.
Conclusion
This study indicates the implementation of artemisinin
combination therapy in a public health facility; however the
success of this new treatment policy would depend on patient
adherence to recommendations and provision of ACTs at
subsidized costs in Nigeria.

Litigation concerning the violation of patient's rights, which are associated with informed consent, confidentiality, right to information and medical records, as well as occasionally with end-of-life decisionmaking are quite frequent in common law and civil law jurisdictions, and has lasted for over a century in issues concerning malpractice, or unauthorized medical interventions and breaches of medical confidentiality. However, what could we say about medical law-related litigation in Japan? Technically, the legal system of Japan is a civil law one, but is practically post-traditional, which is reflected in extreme paternalism in healthcare and patient-physician relationships, which could be observed before the recent decades and which still has some impact on the modern Japanese medical law, despite the number of medical law-related litigation is becoming more frequent nowadays. The Japanese legislation does not have a specific "patient's rights law" in contrast to European states, and most of the principles relating to medical malpractice derive from case law-the practice of the Supreme Court and of the lower courts. Each of the decisions strongly depends upon the factual circumstances, and the post-traditional features of the legal system may have some impact on it.

Introduction
As a response to the anti-malarial drug resistance situation, the
World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that treatment
policies for falciparum malaria in all countries experiencing
resistance to monotherapies should be combination therapies,
preferably those containing an arteminisin derivative (ACTartemisinin-
based combination therapy).
Methodology
A retrospective quantitative study was designed to examine case
records of patients treated for malaria in a tertiary health hospital
in Jos, Northern part of Nigeria between August and December
2012. Questionaires were also distributed to doctors working
within the hospital environment. Data on demographic, clinical
features of disease, diagnostic procedures and drug administration
were collected from the patients' records.
Results
Case record files of 130 patients were selected, 80.7% of the
patients were prescribed antimalarial drugs. 55.2% of patients
admitted for malaria were males, 44.8% were between 21-50 years
of age. Fever (35.2%) was the most common presenting symptom,
71.4% of the patients had diagnostic blood slides. Antimalarial
drugs were prescribed for malaria and malaria associated with
other disease conditions, artemisinin and lumefantrine was the
most prescribed antimalarial agent. 44.0% of these drugs were
prescribed by trade names, 29.0% were administered orally. The
most antimalarial drug prescribed for prevention of malaria in
pregnant women was sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, all the
practitioners followed current WHO guidelines , half of the
clinicians would prescribe parenteral antimalarial drugs for severe
and cerebral malaria, laboratory and clinical assessment were used
for malaria diagnosis, 71.4% of the physicians adhered to hospital
guidelines.
Conclusion
This study indicates the implementation of artemisinin
combination therapy in a public health facility; however the
success of this new treatment policy would depend on patient
adherence to recommendations and provision of ACTs at
subsidized costs in Nigeria.

The article is dedicated to hallmark the problem of accepting evidence of a patient's will by a court in diverse proceedings, and it being communicated by non-classical means. Modern technologies allow patients to communicate utilizing various electrified appliances, in case the disabled person suffers from an ailment, or a health disorder affecting speech and mental abilities. Such appliances may truly enhance the patient's quality of life; however, it is uncertain whether such patient may be found to be a competent witness, or the information reflecting their will obtained in a non-classical method may be found to be as convincing evidence by the court. Currently, there is very little judicial precedent dealing with obtaining evidence of the patient's will by means of assistive communication technologies, though recent Italian legacy has shown such evidence may be accepted by the court, in case forensic-psychiatric examination approves adequacy of the cognitive abilities of the patient, rendering their will competent. Diverse legal systems render the question of patient's competence differently, and the issue of accepting information as evidence obtained by means of assistive communication technologies will surely become more frequent in disputes relating to testament validity or determining the patient's will to undergo or forego medical treatment. Such cases may be of high relevance in civil proceedings on withdrawal of life-supporting treatment, which will ultimately result in the patient's demise.

The Sustainable Development Goals adopted by world leaders on September 25, 2015, aimed to end poverty and hunger, promote gender equity, empower women and girls, and ensure human dignity and equality by all human beings in a healthy environment. These development goals were premised on international human rights norms and institutions, thereby acknowledging the relevance of human rights in achieving each goal. Particularly, sustainable development goal 3, whose objective is to achieve universal health coverage, enhance healthy lives, and promote well-being for all, implicitly recognizes the right to health as crucial. Our focus in this paper is to discuss how promoting patients’ rights and enhancing effective nurse-patient communication in the healthcare setting is a significant and necessary way to achieve universal health coverage. Through a critical review of the empirical research evidence, we demonstrated that enhancing patients’ rights and effect nurse-patient communication w...

ÖZET
Bu araştırma, Hasta Hakları Kurulu üyelerinin hasta haklarına bakışlarını ortaya koyma amacıyla yapılmıştır. Araştırmada çalışma grubu, İstanbul ilindeki gönüllü 50 kurul üyesinden(doktor, sosyal hizmet uzmanı, hemşire, avukat,  memur v.b.) oluşmuştur. Araştırmanın modeli genel tarama modeli olarak seçilmiştir ve veriler SPSS(Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) programı ile analiz edilmiştir. Araştırmadan elde edilen bazı sonuçlar şunlardır: Kurullarda ağırlıklı olarak orta yaş ve üzerinde erkek, evli ve üniversite mezunu üyelerin bulunduğu görülmüştür. Kurul üyelerinin yarıdan fazlası daha önce “Sağlık Kuruluşlarında Hasta Hakları Uygulamaları” konulu bir eğitim almadıklarını belirtmiştir. Görüşülen kurul üyelerinin yalnızca % 24’lük bir kısmı, yaptığı hasta hakları tanımında, doğrudan, insanca yaşam, insan hakları ve insan onuru kavramlarına yer vermiştir.
Anahtar Sözcükler: Hasta Hakları, Hasta Hakları Kurulu, Hasta Hakları Uygulaması.


ABSTRACT
This study aims to reveal the conception/view of  “Patient Rights Council Members” on patient rights. The sample of the study consisted of 50 volunteer council members (doctors, social workers, lawyers, nurses, and other staff, etc.) in Istanbul. It utilized the “General Scanning Method” and the findings were analyzed by SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) program. The basic findings in this research are the following: Most of the council members who were interviewed were married middle-aged men with a university degree. Over the half of the members indicated that they were not informed about the “Patient Right Act in Health Institutions”. Only 24 % of the Patient Council Members who were interviewed,  directly mentioned notions like “humane life, human rights and dignity” in their definitions of “patient rights”.
Key Words: Patient Rights, Patient Rights Council, Patient Rights Practice.

Patients’ rights have been formulated in a number of documents and guidelines from various international bodies. Laws and declarations on patients’ rights do not automatically make health care safer, but can help to empower patients. Empowered patients are in a better position to manage their own health and health care and to participate in efforts to improve safety. The report presents an overview of legal aspects influencing patient safety and describes examples of patient involvement. It highlights the need to strengthen a continuum of information between various levels of care, including patient experiences, health literacy and engagement. The work is expected to contribute to the wider process of evidence collation aimed at finding efficient ways to build realistic and informed expectations of health care, while encouraging patients to be vigilant and knowledgeable to ensure maximum safety standards. Recommendations are formulated with respect to the macro, meso and micro level...

Background: Since its formation after the breakup of Yugoslavia, Macedonia has made major strides in formulating a framework for protecting patient rights through extensive legal reform. The impact of this reform had not been assessed before the work of this project.

Methods/Objectives: Within the context of a larger project on improving human rights in patient care, this paper provides an overview of patients’ rights legislation in Macedonia and uses research, case reports, and other empirical information to highlight the gaps in the implementation of patient rights’ legislation on the ground.

Results: The Law on the Protection of Patients’ Rights (2008) and attendant legislation governing health care provision and other aspects of the social contract in Macedonia provide extensive protections for the rights of patients in such domains as the right to access health care, the right to information, and the right to remedy. This legislation also outlines several new procedural channels to enable patients to vindicate their rights within institutional and governmental structures on the local and national levels. Data from a number of studies and case file reviews suggest, however, that the implementation of many key provisions is lacking, both in terms of quality and presence of services or mechanisms contemplated by Macedonian law. Gaps in implementation disproportionately affect vulnerable and marginalized groups, including women, rural residents, and Roma.

Discussion: Although the letter of Macedonian law generally complies with inter- national best practices in patients’ rights, these rights are not fully implemented and the mechanisms implied are not fully functional. Additional investment must be made in monitoring systems, education, and incentive mechanisms to ensure effective implementation, including the formation of a mandated commission for the protection of patients’ rights.

Patient rights applications are basically the indicators showing the value given to humans raise. In recent years in Turkey, under the influence of regulations in the area of human rights, patient rights issues had been gaining momentum. In this respect, the Turkish Ministry of Health issued the Patient Rights Legislation in 1998 and defined the rights of patients admitting to health institutions in detail. In 2003, to ensure de facto application of patients' rights in the health organizations that had defined in the Patient Rights Legislation, the Patient Rights Application Directive was issued. In line with this directive, provincial patient rights coordinatorships, patient rights commissions and patient rights services had been established under the Ministry of Health. These units receive and evaluate applications of the patients' and their relatives' complaints about violation of their rights and bring them to conclusion.

Presentation of preliminary results of the research project (no. K/DSC/000005) financed by the Jagiellonian University Medical College Faculty of Health Sciences). Jagiellonian University & Maastricht University Joint PhD Students Seminar. Kraków, November 23, 2011
Cf.: Zabdyr-Jamróz M., 2011. Emancipation as oppression. Interpretation of Habeas Corpus from the perspective of biopolitics [in Polish:] Emancypacja jako opresja. Interpretacja instytucji Habeas Corpus przez pryzmat koncepcji biopolityki, [in:] Politikon II. Państwo: emancypacyjne/opresyjne, M. Kaleta, M. Podniesiński, KNP UJ: 63-82
https://www.academia.edu/5912219/Emancypacja_jako_opresja._Interpretacja_instytucji_Habeas_Corpus_przez_pryzmat_koncepcji_biopolityki_---_ENG_Emancipation_as_oppression._Interpretation_of_the_institution_of_Habeas_Corpus_from_perspective_of_biopolitics

The Sustainable Development Goals adopted by world leaders on September 25, 2015, aimed to end poverty and hunger, promote gender equity, empower women and girls, and ensure human dignity and equality by all human beings in a healthy environment. These development goals were premised on international human rights norms and institutions, thereby acknowledging the relevance of human rights in achieving each goal. Particularly, sustainable development goal 3, whose objective is to achieve universal health coverage, enhance healthy lives, and promote well-being for all, implicitly recognizes the right to health as crucial. Our focus in this paper is to discuss how promoting patients' rights and enhancing effective nurse-patient communication in the healthcare setting is a significant and necessary way to achieve universal health coverage. Through a critical review of the empirical research evidence, we demonstrated that enhancing patients' rights and effect nurse-patient communication will promote people-centered care, improve patients' satisfaction of care outcomes, increase utilization of care services, and empower individuals and families to self-advocate for their health. These steps directly impact primary healthcare strategies and the social determinants of health as core components to achieving universal health coverage. We argue that without paying attention to the human rights dimensions or employing human rights strategies, implementing the other efforts will be inadequate and unsustainable in protecting the poorest and most vulnerable populations in the achievement of goal 3.

The article discusses the issue of compulsory immunization of children in Poland. The sanitary inspection had made a lot of decisions imposing parental obligation in that aspect, which has been questioned by the courts, since the obligation is imposed by the law itself. As a result of
this case law, the inspection started enforcement proceedings without issuing a decision. It turned out to be unlawful, because the inspection don’t have the competence to carry out those proceedings. Inspectors therefore comprise an administrative agreements with the voivodes, who entrust them to conduct enforcement proceedings. Such agreements cannot be comprised between the principal and the subordinate which leads to possibility that agreements mentioned above are against the law. There is also the problem of the constitutionality of the statute and the Regulation of the Minister of Health. Both of these acts refer to the annual bulletin of the Chief Sanitary Inspector. This bulletin is not included in the constitutional catalogue of the sources of law.

THE PURPOSE of this paper is to examine the opinion, understanding and attitude of medical students for ethical conduct towards terminally ill patients and specifically as regards Advance Directives for Health Care (ADHC). METHODS: A direct group inquiry was conducted with firstyear medical students in May 2010, in Medical Faculty, Thracian University, Stara Zagora. RESULTS: Most of the inquired students, 72.9%, think that considering the professional conduct with the preliminary expressed patients’ wish is justified by the principle of autonomy’s respect. According to 59.4% of the examined students ADHC should not be compulsory. The grounds are that any potential compulsory character would verge to compulsion and would deprive the right of choice. 31.3% of the students think that the person who will keep the document and be responsible for its performance should be specified by the patient. Since ADHC reflects the patient’s free wish and is a mechanism for exerting his main rights, the patient himself should initiate the filling of ADHC, according to 41.7% of the replied students. CONCLUSION: The majority of inquired students have positive attitude to ADHC. The respect of preliminary expressed wish is grounded by the principle for respect of autonomy.

Patients’ rights have been formulated in a number of documents and guidelines from various international bodies. Laws and declarations on patients’ rights do not automatically make health care safer, but can help to empower patients. Empowered patients are in a better position to manage their own health and health care and to participate in efforts to improve safety. The report presents an overview of legal aspects influencing patient safety and describes examples of patient involvement. It highlights the need to strengthen a continuum of information between various levels of care, including patient experiences, health literacy and engagement. The work is expected to contribute to the wider process of evidence collation aimed at finding efficient ways to build realistic and informed expectations of health care, while encouraging patients to be vigilant and knowledgeable to ensure maximum safety standards. Recommendations are formulated with respect to the macro, meso and micro level...

Health communication, particularly patients’ rights, has become an issue of concern in the recent past. This paper exposes the patients’ rights violation on two main planes: the linguistic plane and the right to information plane. The paper also assesses the world trend on the aforementioned violations and finally contextualises the patient-physicians relationship models. The paper makes the following observations: there is need to reinforce the law on package inserts, especially, the inserts for the patients in both content and language. The PPIs should be translated into Kiswahili for ease readability and access to information. There is also need to enlighten the public and patients in particular on the patients’ rights and enact and implement the Freedom of Information for the public to hold the state responsible for accountability and quality service including health services.  Key words : Linguistic Human Rights, Patients’ Right, Health Communication, Patient Package Inserts.

THE PURPOSE of this paper is to examine the opinion, understanding and attitude of medical students for ethical conduct towards terminally ill patients and specifically as regards Advance Directives for Health Care (ADHC). METHODS: A direct group inquiry was conducted with firstyear medical students in May 2010, in Medical Faculty, Thracian University, Stara Zagora. RESULTS: Most of the inquired students, 72.9%, think that considering the professional conduct with the preliminary expressed patients’ wish is justified by the principle of autonomy’s respect. According to 59.4% of the examined students ADHC should not be compulsory. The grounds are that any potential compulsory character would verge to compulsion and would deprive the right of choice. 31.3% of the students think that the person who will keep the document and be responsible for its performance should be specified by the patient. Since ADHC reflects the patient’s free wish and is a mechanism for exerting his main rights,...

Правовідносини між лікарем та пацієнтом включають в себе обов'язок першого зберігати конфіденційність інформації про стан здоров'я пацієнта, який ґрунтується на підставі норм законодавства і прецедентного права. Як правило, недотримання цього обов'язку та розголошення цих даних тягне за собою або цивільну, або кримінальну відповідальність. Щоправда, як законодавство, так і прецедентне право багатьох країн світу містить чималий ряд виключень з медичної таємниці. Втім, зі зростанням ролі автономності пацієнта у прийнятті рішень щодо його лікування, з цим виникло питання як стосовно забезпечення належного рівня конфіденційності даних реєстрів хворих і інформації щодо їх стану здоров'я, так і можливості самих пацієнтів мати доступ до них. Мета такого доступу, насправді, не настільки прозаїчна, як може здаватися, адже в практиці багатьох судів, у тому числі, міжнародних (до прикладу, згадуючи справу Gaskin v. United Kingdom 1989р.), існує чимало справ, де позивачі воліли отримати рішення суду на витребування документацїі щодо стану здоров'я позивача, аби мати змогу подальшому позиватися проти закладів охорони здоров'я через вчинену ними недбалість, яка могла б бути підтверджена цією документацією в суді. Позиції судів Сполучених Штатів Америки та деяких країн Європи (зокрема, у статті розглянута практика німецьких та португальських судів) суттєво відрізняються між собою в багатьох аспектах, зокрема щодо можливості прямого доступу позивача до даних, майнового статусу інформації про стан здоров'я, права на доступ третіх осіб до документації та його умов, категорій даних, що не підлягають наданню в силу певних обставин, тощо. Питання доступу до даних про стан здоров'я відоме у практиці міжнародних судів ще з середини 1970-х років, зокрема в справах Європейського Суду Справедливості, в яких позивачі судилися з органами ЄЕС, воліючи оскаржити рішення їх кадрових відділів стосовно непридатності обіймати посади за станом здоров'я, що не надавали належних пояснень цьому, а також не надавали медичної документації в якості підтвердження своєму рішенню. З 1980-х років, аналогічні позови подавалися і в Європейський Суд з Прав Людини, де в кількох справах підіймалося не тільки питання доступу до документації лікарень, а й доступу до інформації стосовно біологічних батьків позивача (справи Odievre v. France та Godelli v. Italy).

Ключові слова: дані про стан здоров'я, захист персональних даних, право на доступ до даних про стан здоров'я, медична таємниця, медична халатність, майновий статус персональних даних.
Lytvynenko A.A. The right of access to patient's health data: a comparative analysis of the case law of the european court of human rights, the european court of justice, and the practice of the courts of the united states and some european countries. The legal relationships between the physician and the patient involve a duty to maintain the confindentiality of information concerning the patient's health which is based upon the acting legislation and case law. The non-fulfillment of the said duty mostly brings to civil or criminal responsibility. However, both legislation and case law of various

states bear a substantial number of exemptions from the duty of medical confidentiality. With the enhancement of patient’s role in decision-making concerning his treatment, various issues concerning his data privacy arose. Apart from his data privacy maintenance, there is an issue of the patient’s right to access to his medical records. The purpose of access may not be as prosaic as it may initially look like, as in various jurisprudence, including the case law of international courts, plaintiffs frequently applied to courts to obtain an order for medical records productions so as to file an action against hospitals for negligence. Hence, medical records would be used as evidence of negligence at trial. The positions of the United States courts and the courts in Europe (the given paper embraces several trials from Germany and Portugal) may have divergencies concerning direct access to medical data, proprietary status of the health records, a right to access of third parties and its conditions, the categories of personal data banned from patient’s access under certain circumstances etc. The issue of access to medical records in known in the ECJ jurisprudence since the mid 70s, especially in a number of judgments wherein the plaintiffs sued various EEC bodies attempting to impugn the decision of their human resourse department concerning their ineligibility of holding a certain position in the structures of EEC – therein, the defendants did not give reasonable justifications for the such decisions and didn’t present any medical documentation to the prospective plaintiffs as a proof of their unfitness for office. Since the 1980s, similar actions were filed to the European Court of Human Rights. In some cases, not only the issue of the patient’s right to inspection of the respective health records was risen, but the aspect of accessing the information on plaintiff’s biological forbearers as well (trials of Odievre v. France and Godelli v. Italy).

Key words: Medical records, data privacy, a right to access to medical records, medical confidentiality, medical negligence, proprietary status of health records.