Right To Information Under Data Protection Law In The Healthcare Sector

The right to information under data protection law pursuant to Art. 15 (3) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provides patients with a complete copy of their treatment documentation free of charge. This is confirmed by the activity reports of the data protection supervisory authorities from 2019/2020 and a recent ruling by the Dresden Regional Court on the relationship between the various legal bases on which a request for information in the healthcare sector can generally be based.

Different legal grounds

Patients have a right to inspect and obtain information regarding treatment records relating to them. In German law, this right is derived from the constitutionally guaranteed right to informational self-determination and is anchored in law in several places, e.g., in the law on treatment contracts (Section 630g of the German Civil Code, "BGB"), in several professional regulations and in data protection law under EU law (Article 15 (3) of the