(Quebec) The watchdog of the protection of personal information believes that Minister Éric Caire’s bill on access to health data goes too far. According to the President of the Commission for Access to Information (CAI), the piece of legislation “infringes the right to respect for private life and professional secrecy”.
Me Diane Poitras is concerned regarding the lack of sufficient guidelines to ensure the protection of patients’ personal information in the current version of Bill 3, which aims to increase access to data in the health sector. The president of the CAI also submitted a long list of 21 recommendations to “improve” the bill and limit its scope.
The CAI considers that “on the scale of confidentiality and exceptions”, the legislative document “sometimes places the cursor much too far in favor of maximum use and circulation of information” within the health network. , but also outside. Too many “stakeholders” might have access to a patient’s information, depending on the current form of the text, according to Ms.e Chests.
It is absolutely necessary to better regulate this access, she pleaded Thursday in the parliamentary committee. “It is not because I agree to confide in my professional that I implicitly accept that any other network participant can have access to this information”, illustrated Mr.e Chests.
According to the CAI, the bill aims to allow greater circulation of information, without the patient’s clear consent. ” [Le projet de loi] thus infringes the right to respect for private life and professional secrecy”, writes the commission in its brief.
The day before, it was the Federation of Medical Specialists of Quebec who worried regarding the effects on professional secrecy and the possible “deterioration” of the doctor-patient relationship.1.
Minister Éric Caire reminded Mr.e Note that the qualified “interveners” are essentially members of professional orders or members of nursing staff. Still, according to section 36 of the bill, the government might proceed by regulation to authorize someone “who is not a professional within the meaning of the Professional Code”.
A patient might also revoke their consent, according to the piece of legislation.
The minister’s explanations did not reassure the president of the CAI, who also argued that “the margin left to the regulations” is too wide and “should not be used to establish rules of law or exceptions to fundamental rights “.
The CAI, which is the body that will have the mandate to monitor the application of the future law, has also argued that its current resources are insufficient. “We are at the heart of a reform that requires a lot of resources and energy with Bill 25 [sur les renseignements personnels dans le secteur privé] and putting in a new reform is worrying,” said Ms.e Chests.
This is something that will have to be studied when the time comes to assess the Commission’s budget.
Me Diane Poitras, President of the Commission d’accès à l’information
Professional orders worried
The professional orders are also worried regarding the effects of the future law on professional secrecy. In a letter addressed to the members of the parliamentary committee, the Interprofessional Council of Quebec (CIQ), which brings together the 46 professional orders, deplores not having been invited to the consultations.
“We are in favor of the spirit of the bill, we think it is necessary to regulate information on health and social services, but it goes beyond that, here we are touching on professional secrecy and it is a fundamental right that is protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” explains CIQ vice-president Donald Barabé.
We quote section 68 which stipulates that an organization may “communicate any information it holds to the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions […] when the information is necessary for the purposes of a prosecution for an offense under a law applicable in Quebec”.
When the bill was presented in December, government authorities explained that the piece of legislation would allow the communication of certain personal information, in very specific cases, to the police authorities. But the wording of article 68 “is much too broad”, considers Mr. Barabé who says he fears, like the FMSQ and the College of Physicians, a negative effect on the doctor-patient relationship.
Consultations on Bill 3 – the new version of Bill 19 which was piloted during the last legislature by the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé – resume next week.
