Medical records – confidentiality – human rights – privacy
There was a compelling public interest requiring the disclosure of medical records to a health authority investigating allegations that medical practitioners had breached their terms of service. However, domestic law imposed on each public body an obligation to take appropriate steps to preserve confidentiality when transmitting confidential material to another body. Disclosure of medical records to a public body was also an interference with a patient’s rights under article 8 European Convention on Human Rights. Accordingly, disclosure should be on the express conditions (a) that the documents were to remain confidential and (b) that the authority and every other public body or other person to whom the documents might properly be transmitted was subject to the obligation to take effective and adequate safeguards against abuse.