1. Although the law provides for the right to protection of confidential information, an absence of detailed regulations obstructs its implementation in practice. This leads to situations in which physicians may be unsure of how to protect patients’ confidentiality.
2. The Law on the Rights of Patients states that the private life of patients is inviolable.
The Civil Code on the other hand, deals with another aspect of the right to protection of private life. A provider of personal healthcare services has to provide services in the absence of other persons unless the patient has expressed his consent to the presence of external observers at the time of the provision of healthcare services. Persons whose professional assistance is required for the provision of healthcare services under the contract are not considered as “other persons”.
3. Processing of personal data is regulated by the Law on the Legal Protection of Personal Data of 21 January 2003, as amended on 13 April 2004. This law prohibits to process special categories of personal data of which health data are part, save when the data subject has given his consent.  The data subject has the right of access to his personal data and to receive a copy.

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