The right of access to the electronic health record of the child by the parent who does not have the custody
LEGAL INSIGHT
January 2023
Thanos Makris, Lawyer
In the event of divorce, where the parents’ relationship with each other and with their children is altered, there may be disagreements between the divorced parents which lead to an unlawful limitation of the rights and obligations of each parent. In such cases, it is not uncommon for the custodial parent and the competent bodies (both public and non-public, usually due to ignorance of the legal status) to prevent and refuse to inform the other parent about information concerning the child, which mostly relates to health and education issues. In this respect, it should be noted that this article deals with information on matters relating to the child’s health. The question therefore arises as to whether the refusal to provide information (by the institutions and the custodial parent) is permissible, or whether it constitutes discriminatory discrimination leading to a disproportionate and unconstitutional restriction of the rights of the other parent and unequal treatment of the latter and, consequently, the way in which out-of-court protection is to be provided in order to satisfy the right to information. In other words, it is examined whether the entitled parent can satisfy the right to information directly, without taking legal action against either the other parent or the institution concerned or even by lodging a complaint with the competent authority. Moreover, it should be pointed out that a complaint to the relevant authority follows the prior rejection of the request by the person to whom it is addressed. In this context, the relevant requests of the beneficiary parents have been accepted by the relevant competent bodies for health issues (EOPYY, EDIKA), by providing permanent access to the electronic health file of their children, after processing and legal control by the relevant service (regional directorate) and despite the – in some cases – systematic refusal of the other practising parent to grant access authorisation.