Bewaartermijn voor patiëntengegevens; Gezondheidsraad bepleit wetswijziging

- According to the Dutch Medical Treatment Act (WGBO), patient data must be retained for at least 10 years or as much longer as required for the provision of good medical care. In practice, patient data are often destroyed after 10 years. This may lead to problems, for example if a treatment turns out to have long-term consequences. A committee of the Health Council of the Netherlands has now recommended a change in the law. They propose a longer retention period for the care of the patient, a statutory regulation governing retention for research purposes and supplementary provisions that make it possible to retain hereditary data in the interest of relatives. Until the necessary changes in the law have been made, further destruction of medical data must be prevented. This can be accomplished by revising the existing transition provision in the WGBO, while extending it by 5 years. The scientific societies can use this time to develop guidelines for the longer storage of data in specific areas of care and for the periodic cleaning up of the files.