Mater Dei Hospital’s customer care unit has received 647 requests from patients wanting to see their medical files so far this year, according to the Health Ministry.
Last year, the unit handled 1,386 applications either for copies or to view medical files/images and laboratory results. The requests were either made by the patients themselves or through their insurance companies, a spokesman said.
The ministry was reacting to patients’ complaints that they often faced a brick wall when trying to access their medical files.
The complaints came in the wake of the 2012 European Health Consumer Index study released earlier this week, which said personal medical files in Malta were treated as some kind of “state secret” by the authorities and patients were denied access.
The ministry spokesman explained that to access their files, patients had to fill in a standard form. The request is then subject to the approval of the hospital authorities. If approved, the patient, after a couple of weeks, is asked to pick up photocopies of the original documents.
When processing the form, the hospital authorities make sure that the information requested is not detrimental to the patient. “The objective of this is to avoid having patients accessing information that has not as yet been explained to them by a caring consultant,” the spokesman said.
Patients who complained about difficulties in accessing their own medical files said they had noticed a sticker warning “Not To Be Handled By Patient” on the documents.
The ministry spokesman explained that medical history should not be physically handled by patients at hospital.
The patient only had access to the file once a request was made.
“Handling the file and access to it are two completely different things,” the spokesman said.
He noted that, last year, the hospital received 62 requests from patients to change their consultant. So far this year, 23 such requests were received.
Contrary to what the index said, this showed that patients had access to second opinions, the spokesman said.