Confidential data becoming available
When we visit a medical facility, it is clear that we request and expect that the information obtained about us will remain confidential.
We know that the patient’s personal data is a special category of personal data and is processed without the patient’s consent in cases provided by law.
The RA Law “On Medical Care and Services of the Population” gives the patient the right to receive information in an accessible form about his health condition, diagnosis of the disease, provided (provided) medical care and service, including the selection, course and results of treatment methods, as well as their However, the term “accessible” refers only to the patient having access to information about him, it does not in any way define the freedom for the health care professional to be in the presence of another patient. in terms of talking to the patient about the patient’s health condition, telling one patient about another patient’s health condition, informing the patient about his health condition, treatment prospects or the lack of such prospects in the waiting room in a non-consultative manner, and other similar behaviors.
According to the law, the information about the patient’s state of health or about applying for or receiving medical care and service, as well as the information revealed in the course of providing medical care and service, is considered a medical secret, which is a specially protected personal data.
The Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia prescribes a punishment in the form of imprisonment for unlawfully disclosing information containing medical secrets to another person without the written consent of the person or his legal representative.
However, from the statistics of the RA Investigative Committee, it can be assumed that the cases of disclosure of medical secrets mostly remain undisclosed, moreover, this phenomenon is habitual, which complicates the struggle for the protection of personal data.
This is not only a legal problem, but also a cultural one, because health workers are part of the same society, and society, as a rule, does not recognize what medical secrets have said accepted rules of medical ethics.
The task of the state is not only to create an ethics commission, which will be a body for examining complaints, but also to form an institute for monitoring medical care and service, which will make it possible to highlight the unpolished skills of medical workers and the need for training and discipline. to close the gap in the protection of human rights in the field of medical care and service through proceedings.
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