French Public Health Code
In forceI.- Advance directives are kept in a way that makes them easily accessible to the doctor called upon to make a decision to limit or stop treatment as part of the collegiate procedure defined in article R. 4127-37-2.
II - To this end, the advance directives may be filed and kept, if the person who drew them up so decides, in the area of their shared medical record provided for this purpose and mentioned in g of 1° of article R. 1111-42. This filing constitutes entry in the register provided for in article L. 1111-11. The person may also decide to mention only the information about the existence of such directives, the place where they are kept and the contact details of the person who is keeping them. When advance directives are kept in the shared medical record, a reminder of their existence is regularly sent to their author.
The procedures for authentication, storage, access and revision and the guarantees provided to preserve the confidentiality of advance directives are those laid down for the shared medical record in section 4 of this chapter.
III - Advance directives may also be kept :
1° By a general practitioner, whether the attending physician or another physician chosen by the person who drew them up ;
2° In the event of hospitalisation, in the medical record referred to in article R. 1112-2 ;
3° In the event of admission to a medico-social establishment, in the care file that conforms to the standard file mentioned in 8° of article D. 312-158 of the Code de l'action sociale et des familles.
In these cases, the advance directives are covered by the provisions of articles L. 1110-4 and L. 1110-4-1 relating to the confidentiality of information concerning the person cared for by a healthcare professional and the conditions for exchanging, sharing and securing this information.
IV -When advance directives are filed in one of the files mentioned in II and III of this article, the persons identified in application of b and d of I of article R. 1111-18 are informed by the author of these directives of the registration of the data concerning them.
V.- Advance directives may also be kept by their author or entrusted by the latter to the trusted support person referred to in article L. 1111-6, to a family member or to a close friend. In this case, their existence, the place where they are kept and the identification of the person who holds them may be mentioned, at the request of their author, in the shared medical record, in the record compiled by the general practitioner, in the medical record defined in article R. 1112-2 of the present code or in the record complying with the standard record mentioned in 8° of article D. 312-158 of the code de l'action sociale et des familles.
The person holding the advance directives is identified by name, surname and contact details. This person is informed by the author of the advance directives of the registration of data concerning him/her in one of the files mentioned in the previous paragraph.
VI - Any health or medico-social establishment will ask each person it cares for about the existence of advance directives. The medical file defined in article R. 1112-2 of this Code or the file complying with the standard file mentioned in 8° of article D. 312-158 of the Code de l'Action Sociale et des Familles (Social Action and Family Code) shall mention, where applicable, the existence of such directives and the contact details of the person who holds them.
VII -The National Centre for Palliative and End-of-Life Care, as part of the tasks entrusted to it by Decree no. 2016-5 of 5 January 2016, draws up information documents relating to the possibility of drawing up advance directives and the practical arrangements for accessing the model mentioned in Article R. 1111-18.
