The woman in charge of privacy matters for the provincial Ministry of Health says companies charging Saskatchewan residents to obtain their medical records are well within their rights to do so.
The issue has come to light in Estevan after the recent closure of two medical clinics in the city. The Mercury has received calls from local residents who are upset they have had to pay money to get their personal records back from companies that were contracted by the clinics. For example, the former patients at the Estevan Medical Clinic are being charged a $30 fee to obtain their information.
However, Jacquie Messer-Lepage, the chief privacy officer for the Ministry of Health, said the archival companies are allowed to charge a reasonable fee for access to the records under provincial legislation.
"We tell people that it's not inappropriate (to charge a fee), it's actually a good thing that they are using a service to look after and secure the records," said Messer-Lepage. "The information within the record is certainly the patient's information. But the physicians are running a business that they need to keep documentation for, so the documentation really should live with the trustees, the doctor. Sometimes physicians will just give patients their records, it depends on the doctor."
The privacy of health care records has been a hot button issue in Saskatchewan over the past few years. There have been a handful of incidents where records were carelessly discarded or in one recent incident in Regina, placed in a dumpster.
Messer-Lepage said although she can understand why some might be upset at the charge, it is better for all involved that the records are properly looked after.
"We want physicians to be insuring that they are securing these records so it is a pretty good thing to make sure that they are secured with somebody," she said. "I can see on the flipside that the patient might feel that they are being charged for something that they wouldn't normally be, but in reality most clinics charge some kind of fee to access patient records, it's not just these archives that are doing it."
