Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra on Sunday strongly supported the call of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) and two medical associations for individuals tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and persons under investigation (PUIs) to sign waivers for the disclosure of their medical condition.
Guevarra agreed with the IBP, the Philippine Medical Association (PMA), and the Philippine College of Surgeons (PCS) that the disclosure through waivers “will enable other people they have been in close contact with to take the necessary precautions or remedial measures to protect themselves…”
The disclosure would also unburden the Department of Health (DoH) “with the tedious task of contact tracing,” he said.
“Both the PMA and the Data Privacy Commission provide the ethical and legal basis for this action in times of public health emergency, and the Department of Justice affirms its validity,” he pointed out.
Earlier, IBP President Domingo Egon Cayosa, PMA President Jose P. Santiago Jr., and PCS President Jose Antonio M. Salud said that “the confidentiality of a patient’s medical data and details is not absolute.”
They said the Code of Ethics of the Medical Profession provides that “the physician shall hold as private and highly confidential whatever may be discovered or learned pertinent to the patient… except when required by law, ordinance or administrative order in the promotion of justice, safety and public health.”
They also said that under the Health Privacy Code, confidentiality can be lifted “when the public health and safety so demand and when the patient waives this right….”
They pointed out the increasing number of COVID-19 patients and seeking admission or treatment in clinics and hospitals “without divulging their true condition thereby compromising the health institutions and the health workers therein, the difficulty if not inability of government to conduct timely, adequate and complete contact tracing….”
They asked that COVID-19 patients and PUIs “to voluntarily waive the confidentiality of their medical condition and forthrightly inform those they have been in close contact with.” (Rey Panaligan)