The article "Why don't doctors in Saudi Arabia give patients medical reports?" (May 8), makes a good suggestion. But rather than a report, I suggest that the medical record should be made available online with the patient's ID number so that he can get it from any hospital. A small clinic run by the Indian community has everything online in their system. If that is linked with the passport department, then patients or any other legal authority can access the information. That will reduce the need for unnecessary medical tests and it will also determine if hospitals are exploiting patients. Ashref, Online response The medical records of patients are legal and confidential, and it would require a court order to disclose them. Therefore, legally we cannot put medical records online. Dr. M Zak Khalil, Online response