Court case 22/01253 – Court Ruling (Netherlands, 2022)

A patient (the data subject) was treated in a hospital. Because she believed that an error had been made, she held the hospital liable. The hospital involved its liability insurer. On behalf of this liability insurer, a doctor from another hospital assessed the data subject's medical file. He checked whether the treatment had been carried out correctly. This doctor did not see the data subject nor was she involved in the investigation in any other way. The data subject found out that this other doctor had made an assessment of the treatment and tried to get access to the findings. The doctor who made the assessment refused her access. The data subject then filed a disciplinary complaint against this doctor with the Regional Medical Disciplinary Tribunal. The Regional Tribunal declared the complaint unfounded. The data subject appealed against this decision to the Central Medical Disciplinary Tribunal. The data subject argued that she should get access to the medical assessment based on the inspection rights from the Medical Treatment Contracts Act (MTCA) laid down in the Dutch Civil Code (article 7:456 BW). However, the Central Tribunal held that the data subject could not appeal to these rights, as an exception in the MTCA was applicable (article 7:464 BW). According to the Central Tribunal, the nature of the legal relationship (the trial) between the data subject and the hospital opposed this. It explained that the hospital had the right to prepare their defence against the data subject's liability claim 'in freedom and seclusion'. In that context, they must also be able to call in another doctor to assess the course of treatment, without the data subject being able to inspect the findings. The Central Tribunal therefore held that there was no obligation to make the medical assessment available to the data subject and declared the complaint unfounded. As a rule, decisions of the Central Tribunal cannot be appealed. However, cassation is possible if it is in the