Hospital staff who leak confidential information about patients intentionally or unintentionally to unauthorized individuals or agencies will be terminated from service without notice and will face legal consequences, an informed source said. "All hospital employees are responsible to protect confidential information about patients and should not disclose them to unauthorized parties," the source told Al-Watan Arabic daily. "Patients will have the right to demand an investigation if information about them was obtained by any agency or individual for reasons other than treatment," the source added. Members of the hospital staff are not allowed to provide any information from a patient's file to any individual or organization without permission from the hospital manager. Ensuring patients' right to privacy is one of the basic duties of every health institution and it should honor it. Hospital staff should not disclose any information about both inpatients and outpatients who come to consult doctors, the source said. The source stressed the need for hospitals to take precautionary measures in order to protect the privacy of patients. "Nobody should take photocopies of a patient's file except through the medical records department and for that a written permission of the department's supervisor is required. Members of the medical team including doctors and nurses are not allowed to exchange information about a patient except in the clinic, the source said, adding that such discussions should not be heard by outsiders and should not done in the hospital corridors. However, doctors and specialists who treat the patient will have the right to get information related to the patient for treatment purposes and nobody is allowed to provide information from the patient's file to others except with the written permission of the hospital manager. The source said hospital employees are not allowed to exchange information about a patient by phone, except in emergency cases. The hospital director can allow outside agencies to see medical records for conducting research and studies approved by the ministry. "A patient's medical file should be under the custody of the hospital, which should ensure its secrecy and should be given only to doctors and nurses who treat the patient. Staff should not use family name of the patient in postal contacts and while addressing the patient inside the hospital. Individuals are not allowed to take pictures of patients using mobile phones or cameras without taking permission from the hospital manager. "If anybody violates this law, the hospital's security personnel should handle the case as per the law," he explained. The source also pointed out that a hospital will be responsible for destroying any document or bottles that carry a patient's information.
