Health records and all documents that refer to a patient are “Critical Texts” for any hospital and all workers with access to that information. Regulations concerning them have been being written progressively through successive healthcare laws, which make the responsibility hospitals and their workers have for this documentation extremely clear. Healthcare Law 14/1986 of April 25th established that patients have the right to written certification throughout the entire process, in a health record, and also to receive a discharge report on ending their hospital stay as well as an outpatient report. Furthermore, the law clearly states that the record should be stored centrally in a single place. Royal Decree 63/1995 covered these issues on stating that the patient has the right to communication or delivery, at their request, of a copy of their clinical record, “or specific data contained within”, without affecting the obligation that it be kept at the healthcare center. In this regard it is emphasized that the public system should preserve and guarantee the confidentiality of the information contained in health records, an obligation that must be met by public and private healthcare centers working with the public system, as is the case with the Hospital de Caridad. A recent ruling by the Provincial Court of Madrid establishes that the crime of baby theft is not covered by a statute of limitations, and so the families involved must be given the details of the relevant health records.
