„Gazeta Wyborcza” daily asks about data protection in the health service sector, 12 November 2009

The safeguarding of personal data by health service institutions was the main topic of the interview given by Michał Serzycki, GIODO to a journalist of „Gazeta Wyborcza” daily.

Michał Serzycki, the Inspector General for Personal Data Protection, explained during the conversation with Agnieszka Pochrzęst-Motyczyńska that health care institutions had an obligation to take care of personal data, because they were obliged to do so not only by the provisions of the Act on Personal Protection, but also by the industry provisions specifying in more detail the provisions of the Act.

He quoted as an example the Regulation by the Minister of Health and Social Welfare of 21 December 2006 on the types and scope of medical documentation in health care institutions and the way of its processing. The Regulation states that the manager of the health care institution shall be responsible for creating such organisational and technical conditions of documentation storage that ensure its confidentiality, protect it against unauthorised access, destruction or loss. – Physicians need to keep the patient’s information secret as well. They are obliged thereto by the Act of 5 December 1996 on the profession of a physician and a dentist – said Michał Serzycki.

He clarified that the provisions also regulated who had access do medical documentation, how long it could be stored and how to safeguard the data contained in computer systems.