Patients have right to medical records

August 3, 2010 (Centre Spread)

THE Human Rights Court in Accra has ruled that patients have a right to their medical records without recourse to a court action.
In its ruling on a motion on notice for medical records which was filed on behalf of Mrs Elizabeth Vaah, who had dragged the Lister Hospital and Fertility Centre to the court for the release of her medical records, the court held that Article 21 of the 1992 Constitution guaranteed freedom of information.
Although the hospital opposed the application at the onset, it later released the records, but Mrs Vaah prayed it to rule on the matter in order to set a precedence.
The presiding judge, Mr Justice U. P. Dery, held that the Constitution guaranteed the right to medical records as part of the freedom of information.
Costs of GH¢1,000 were awarded against Lister Hospital, whose initial opposition to the release of the records to Mrs Vaah was described as “baseless” by the court.
In the substantive motion, Mrs Vaah sought a declaration that a patient was entitled to his/her medical records within the custody of a health service institution, subject only to the payment of reasonable fees for the production of the records and any other limitations as recognised by law and notwithstanding the fact that the patient made statements in the public media.
Her counsel, Mr Tuinese Edward Amuzu, said he was of the view that Ghanaians and other nationals needed not go to court before they could have access to their medical records.
The grounds set out by the applicant included the fact that she had been delivered of a fresh still-born baby at the hospital on March 9, 2010 and a post mortem examination had stated that the pathologist was not sure of what caused the multiple organ haemorrhage of her baby.
According to the applicant, she intended to have another baby in future and would, therefore, need her medical records to put at the disposal of any doctor who might attend to her in Ghana or outside the country.
Responding to the applicant’s motion, counsel for Lister Hospital, Mr Victor Kwadjoga Adawudu, said the hospital was not against the motion because it recognised the right of patients to their medical records.
Counsel, however, expressed the fear that patients might doctor their medical records for selfish gains when they had access to them.
After carefully considering arguments from both parties, the court upheld Mrs Vaah’s motion and granted her reliefs.