The Law

The Patient’s Rights Law was approved by the Knesset on May 1, 1996. The law has come to define the relationship between people requiring treatment and doctors and other medical professionals. The following statement appears in the first paragraph of the law: “This law’s purpose is to define the rights of a person requesting medical treatment or receiving medical treatment and to protect his dignity and privacy.”

Medical treatment is a partnership between the patient and the medical team. The assumption upon which the Patient’s Rights Law is based is that the patient is an intelligent person generally capable of asserting his right to receive proper medical treatment. The following protections are guidelines that emerge from this law and others, and from directives issued by the Misrad Habriut to protect the patient’s dignity and privacy.

During Examination

Physical examination in private

Anyone who is examined is entitled to have an additional person present, a person of his/her choice or an employee, when the examination is being performed.

The presence of a student during a medical examination

A patient has the right to refuse the presence of and/or examination by a student while the patient is receiving medical treatment.

Parents’ Rights

Transfer of medical information to both parents regarding their children

In general, both parents have rights to information regarding a child’s treatment, and giving consent, and the parent on hand is usually sufficient to make decisions and/or represent the will of the other parent. However, there may be mitigating legal or other circumstances.  The Ministry of Health has published precise instructions about health service providers making information accessible to both parents, and when the consent of one or the other must be requested.

Medical Confidentiality

The obligation to maintain confidentiality regarding the treatment given to the patient is the foundation upon which the patient’s trust in the doctor is based. Both the Privacy Protection Law and the Patient’s Rights Law require guarding medical information. These laws are applicable for anyone treating a patient and not solely for doctors. The importance for these rules is clear; for example, the damage that might be done to an individual in certain communities if knowledge of her having an abortion was publicly known or if the facts of a businessman’s illness were known to his associates.

Transfer of Information

The Patient’s Rights Law distinctly establishes the obligation for medical confidentiality and only permits transfer of information to a third party in the follow circumstances:

• The information is given to a different caregiver for continuation of treatment.
• Research purposes (in accordance with Helsinki regulations).
• In accordance with different regulatory requirements (i.e. transfer of information to the Ministry of the Interior for purposes of issuing a firearm license; transfer of information to the National Cancer Registry; notification of infectious diseases, etc.).
• When the patient has agreed to waive the privilege by signing a “Written Medical Confidentiality Waiver (Vasar)”.

Take caution when signing a “Written Medical Confidentiality Waiver (Vasar)”, as it can mean the following:

• The signer waives his/her right to medical confidentiality without a time limit;
• There is no nominal limit on who is permitted to view the information and therefore any employee of the organization that receives the information can view the medical file sent to the organization;
• The party that receives the “Written Medical Confidentiality Waiver” can view all of the signer’s medical records whether they are relevant or not to the claim/issue at hand.

Recommended waiver limitations:

1. Limit the scope of the waiver, if possible– Is there need for a general confidentiality waiver, which is a waiver including all medical issues, or is a limited waiver possible (for a specific medical topic and/or for specific purpose)?
2. Limit the period in which the waiver will be effective, if possible– It is important that a confidentiality waiver will be time-limited (for example, until a specific date or until the conclusion of the task for which the medical confidentiality waiver is required).
3. Give limited authorization for transfer of information to a specific individual or position holder – If it is possible to limit the authorization as such that the waiver will only be valid for a specific individual or position holder and not for an entire body, authority or company, because then the waiver is valid for everyone in that body (for example, regarding an insurance company, it is important to ensure that the confidentiality waiver will only be valid for doctors, lawyers or specific people/position holders that work for the insurance company).