1. The information contained by patient documents shall be confidential.
2. Health care professionals or other persons working in a health care unit or carrying out its tasks shall not give information contained by patient documents to outsiders without a written consent by the patient. If a patient is not capable of assessing the significance of the consent, information may be given by his/ her legal representative’s written consent. In this Act outsiders refer to persons other than those who participate in the care of the patient or in carrying out jobs related to it in the health care unit in question or by its order. The secrecy obligation remains in force after termination of the employment relationship or the job.
3. Information included in patient documents may be given if there are express provisions on giving it or on the right to access to it in the law.
4. Information necessary for the arranging of examination and treatment of the patient may be given to another health care unit or health care professional, and a summary of the treatment provided may be given to the health care unit or the health care professional that referred the patient for treatment and to a physician possibly appointed to be responsible for the care of the patient in accordance with the patient’s or his/her legal representative’s orally given consent or consent that is otherwise obvious for the context.
5. Information necessary for arranging and providing the examination and care of a patient may be given to another Finnish or foreign health care unit or health care professional, if the patient, owing to mental health disturbance, mental handicap or for comparable reason is not capable of assessing the significance of the consent and he/ she has no legal representative, or if the patient cannot give the consent because of unconsciousness or for comparable reason.
6. Information about the identity and state of health of a patient may be given to a family member of the patient or to other person close to the patient, if the patient is receiving treatment because of unconsciousness or for other comparable reason, unless there is reason to believe that the patient would forbid this.
7. Iinformation on the health and medical care of a deceased person provided when the person was still living may be given upon a justified written application to anyone who needs the information in order to find out his/ her vital interest or rights, to the extent the information is necessary for that purpose; the acquiring party may not use or forward the information for some other purpose.
8. What is provided in the Act on the Openness of Government Activities, the Act on National Personal Data Registers for Health Care (556/1989) and in the Personal Data File Act shall apply to the supplying of information contained in patient documents for scientific research and compilation of statistics.

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