Diagnosis indicated in sickness certificate infringes person’s intimacy, IDOM

Writing of diagnosis in the sickness certificates that are shown at the workplace or the place of study is a violation of the person’s intimacy, considers the Moldova Institute for Human Rights (IDOM). For several years, the institution has represented in court a person who sued the Ministry of Health, demanding withdrawing the discriminatory sickness certificates. The Ministry of Health admits that a change is necessary, but says time is needed to implement it. “When I filed the lawsuit in 2009, the certificate included a division for writing the diagnosis. This norm is discriminatory. When the Ministry was sued, it decided to code the diagnosis, but used the codes of the World Health Organization that can be found on the Internet by anyone,” IDOM director Vanu Jereghi stated for Info-Prim Neo. IDOM believes that the diagnosis is confidential information that must be known only by the patient and the doctor. “A colleague of ours, a lawyer, suffered spontaneous abortion and could not come to the hearing. She had to bring a medical certificate where there was written that she had a miscarriage. It was attached to the file and now everybody can see the diagnosis,” said Vanu Jereghi. IDOM lawyer Andrei Lungu said that in accordance with the Law on the Rights and Responsibilities of the Patient, the diagnosis cannot be made public without the patient’s consent. “However, the medical certificate allows the employer, accountant and personnel service to know what disease the employee has or had. This is a violation of the right to intimacy. There are very sensitive cases of disease,” said the lawyer. According to Andrei Lungu, the code introduced by the Ministry of Health in May 2010 is aimed at eliminating the linguistic barriers between doctors rather than at protecting the patients. Marina Berzedean, consultant at the Ministry of Health’s press service, said the institution is dealing with the requests made by people and human rights protection organizations. “Attempts were made to change the situation. A code was introduced instead of the diagnosis. But not much can be done in a short period of time. We understand that this point should be eliminated,” she stated. The sickness certificates cannot be removed as they are used to do the calculations for determining the sick pay. According to Marina Berzedean, a new calculation mechanism is now being worked out. When it is approved, the diagnosis will not be indicated in the medical certificates, not even in coded form. The next hearing on the case will take place at the Supreme Court of Justice on February 1.