The information about the patient’s state of health, diagnosis, treatment, personal data is confidential even after his death. There is an obligation of the physician to keep the professional secrecy, which is opposable to the patient’s family members and which is maintained even after the person has ceased to be his patient or is deceased. The present study discusses aspects on the impossibility of proving a possible malpractice case, in the absence of the access of the patient’s family to medical documents, medical observations, medical sheets, and medical treatment applied to the patient deceased in the meantime.
We have in view that Article 21 of the Law No 46/2003 on patient’s rights stipulates that all information regarding the patient’s condition, the results of the investigations, the diagnosis, the prognosis, the treatment, the personal data are confidential even after his death, and Article 22 of the same normative act provides that confidential information may be provided only if the patient gives his explicit consent or if the law expressly requires so. Similarly, Article 18 of the Code of Professional Deontology states that the physician’s obligation to keep professional secrecy is also opposableagainst the members of the family of that person concerned and such an obligation to preserve the professional secrecy persists also after the person in question ceased to be a his patient or deceased.
Starting from these provisions, it is raised the question of the impossibility to prove a possible malpractice case, in the absence of the access of the patient’s family to medical documents, observation sheets and post-surgery treatment of the patient who deceased in the meantime.
