wife of a person suffering from psychiatric illness applies to the PIO of the hospital

[snkmoorthy]

the wife of a person suffering from psychiatric illness applies to the PIO of the hospital for details of treatment given, drugs prescribed and the reasons for prescribing them. what should the PIO do?

[karira]

snkmoorthy,

It depends a lot on individual cases and the circumstances surrounding the particular case.

1. Medical records of a individual can be "personal" data
2. If there are grounds for medical negligence, then the data can be provided
if it will serve the larger "public interest"
3. The patient himself can be a "third party" and may be the PIO can decide to
invoke the "third party" clause

There are many decisions of the CIC concerning disclosure of medical records...some allowing, some not allowing, some only releasing part of the records. Please visit CIC and using the search function look for "medical records" or "medical reports" and you can then read many decisions which can be of use to you.

I am just highlighting two of them here:

http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Orders/Decision_09022007_19.pdf

http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Orders/Decision_13122006_17.pdf

Please also wait for some time, since other members might have different opinions or suggestions and it will be useful to consider all differing views before proceeding further.