Patients at Mater Dei Hospital insist they often come up against a brick wall when trying to access their medical files, despite the Health Ministry’s assurances these are easily accessible.

Several patients contacted The Times yesterday saying they had been denied access to their files, which have a large sticker in bold, reading Not To Be Seen By Patient, slapped on the front.

A past patient at Mater Dei said she even had the file snatched from her hands by a senior nurse, when an aide inadvertently gave it to her. Another said he had been trying to access his medical notes for some four years to no avail.

This situation was corroborated by Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses president Paul Pace, who said nurses did not allow patients to look at their files.

“Even though it is a right, Mater Dei administration has never issued any change in procedures. We abide by hospital regulations. We are not even allowed to hang the charts on the bed, lest the patient reads it,” Mr Pace said when contacted.

Patients came forward to share their experiences in the light of the 2012 European Health Consumer Index study released on Tuesday, which claimed personal medical files in Malta were treated as some kind of “state secret” by the authorities and patients were denied access.

The ministry insisted the information was “flawed” and that since 2001 patients could access their medical file by contacting a designated person within Mater Dei Hospital.

One patient, who did not wish to be named, said he had called asking to speak to this designated person yesterday morning and nobody had a clue.

When The Times contacted Mater Dei customer care, it was informed that the actual file can never be seen by the patient.

A patient would have to go to the Customer Care department, present an ID card, and fill in a form requesting access to it.

The request is then subject to the approval of the hospital authorities. If approved, the patient, after a couple of weeks, is asked to pick up photocopies of the original documents, at a charge of 23c per page.

When contacted for an explanation about this, the ministry’s reply was not forthcoming by the time of going to print.

Asked about the sticker on patients’ files, Data Protection Commissioner Joseph Ebejer said this was legally correct.

“The patient has no right to see the original file. The patient has a right to be given the written information about the actualinformation in the file, but not the original,” Mr Ebejer said.

It was at the discretion of the hospital to allow the patient to view the original files or to give copies of the original, he said.

Medical Association of Malta president Martin Balzan said MAM had been lobbying to try to make doctors’ names on patients’ files anonymous.

“The files do not just contain data on the patient but also on the doctor,” he said.

“A doctor will not just be documenting facts, but will also be jotting down his thoughts on the process to ensure a clear handover from one doctor to the next.”

Malta Health Network, the group lobbying for patients’ interests and the health of the community in Malta and abroad, said the situation regarding patients’ rights was “not a total washout”.

“In my view, we cannot say nothing has been done but of course more needs to be done,” said network chairman Anthony Guillaumier.