1. The physician has the obligation to keep medical information confidential. This obligation is absolute. In order to strictly and effectively respect medical secrecy, the physician has to observe the necessary discretion regarding his collaborators, assistants or third parties which take part in one or another way or support the medical service. The duty to respect medical secrecy may be waived by the consent of the person concerned, except when this consent is not valid as in case of error, deceit, deception, physical or psychological violence or when it violates human dignity.
2. The right of the patient to informational privacy and the obligation of physicians to respect this aspect of the patient’s privacy are found in Greek law. Every patient shall have the right, to the extent that it is genuinely possible, to the protection of his private life. This includes the right to expect appropriate and confidential treatment of data, documents and files containing personal information, including observations and medical findings.
3. It is forbidden to process personal data with regard to the state of health, medical examination, medical care and treatment. There are exceptions to this rule.Without the special written consent of the patient, treating (attending) physicians may process personal medical data under their supervision and responsibility. Personal medical data can be communicated to a third party following the written consent of the patient or to a physician and his medical team to further the medical treatment of the patient.
4. Medical data are ‘sensitive’ data. The processing of all sensitive data, including medical data, is only allowed under the certain conditions.
5. Data pertaining to health matters will be communicated to the data subject by means of a medical doctor. All data subjects should thus be able to inspect the recorded data relating to themselves. This right, however, needs to be exercised through a physician for the protection of the subject and the exact role of the physician remains unclear. It may be that the physician will make known only a selection of the data so as not to cause distress or damage to physical health.

Top