French Public Health Code
In forceI.-Public or private health establishments are obliged to communicate to persons receiving or having received care, at their request, the medical information defined in article L. 1111-7. This information may be provided, at the choice of the person concerned, either directly or through a doctor appointed by that person.
Health establishments shall offer medical assistance to persons who so wish when they request access to information concerning them.
Refusal of this support does not prevent the information from being consulted.
In compliance with the ethical rules applicable to them, the practitioners in the establishments provide information to the people being treated. Paramedical staff take part in this information within their field of competence and in compliance with their own professional rules.
II -The practitioner who refers a patient to a health care organisation accompanies his request with a liaison letter summarising the information required for the patient's care.
The practitioner who referred the patient to the healthcare establishment with a view to hospitalisation and the attending doctor have access, at their request, to the information mentioned in the first paragraph of I.
When the patient is discharged, the practitioner who referred the patient to the healthcare establishment with a view to hospitalisation and the attending doctor will receive a liaison letter containing information useful for continuity of care, drawn up by the doctor or, where appropriate, by the midwife of the establishment in charge of the patient, including when the patient is cared for in the absence of the liaison letter referred to in the first paragraph of this II.
The liaison letter is, in compliance with the requirements set out in the fourth paragraph of I, II and III of Article L. 1111-2, given to the patient on discharge or, with the patient's agreement and under the conditions set out in Article L. 1111-6, to the trusted support person.
When the liaison letters are dematerialised, they must be filed in the patient's shared medical file and sent by secure messaging system to the practitioner who referred the patient to the healthcare establishment with a view to hospitalisation, as well as to the attending doctor and the patient.
III - Establishments are required to protect the confidentiality of the information they hold on the people they admit.
Doctors who are members of the Inspectorate General of Social Affairs, public health inspectors, inspectors of the Regional Health Agency who are doctors and medical advisors to health insurance organisations have access to this information, in accordance with the rules of medical ethics, when it is necessary for the performance of their duties.
The terms and conditions for the application of this article, particularly with regard to the procedure for accessing the medical information defined in article L. 1111-7, are laid down by regulation, after consulting the Conseil national de l'ordre des médecins.
