Background: The aim of this study is to analyze the legal regulations that pertain to the duty of doctor-patient privilege and the possibility of its repeal on the plane to provide information about the patient’s health status to his employer.
Material and methods: The material constitutes the current Polish law regulations relating to the medical duty of doctor–patient privilege as well as provisions defining the scope of information on the patient’s health status that may be transferred to a patient’s employer.
Results: The doctor has no right to provide the employer with information on contraindications to perform a specific job, if the information was obtained in the mode of providing health services that are not eligible for the catalogue of preliminary/preventive/control examinations. The basis for the doctor providing information to the employer cannot be an exception to the obligation of medical confidentiality, which is governed by art. 40 § 2 pts 1–6 of the Act of Medical Profession, under which cases of admission of professional secrecy were listed, which makes it impossible to use the cited article in cases other than strictly specified in its content.
Conclusions: Polish law specifies the circumstances in which it is possible to provide an employer with the medical information on the patient’s health. However, there are regulations that provide for the information on contraindications to perform a certain type of work or job to be transmitted if the information has been obtained in a manner other than as provided in the ordinance on medical examinations of employees. Med Pr 2018;69(6):613–620
Keywords: periodical examinations; medical confidentiality; contraindications to perform work; exceptions to medical confidentiality; prohibition of informing the employer; information on an employee’s health.
This work is available in Open Access model and licensed under a CC BY-NC 3.0 PL license.