Information and consent
Principle
- All patients have the right to be informed of their state of health.
- You also have the right to refuse to be informed.
- All information that concerns you is confidential.
- All patients take decisions on their health with their healthcare professional and based on the information and recommendations he/she provides.
- No medical procedure, nor any treatment may be administered or conducted without your free and informed consent. This consent can be removed at any time.
The case of protected persons
Consent for care for minors or for adults under guardianship is given by their legal representative(s) – person(s) with parental authority or guardian(s). In order to make informed decisions, these representatives are therefore provided with information on the state of health of the minor or the adult under guardianship.
Nevertheless, the minor may demand for secrecy to be applied concerning the persons with parental authority. Legal action may also be taken in the case of difficulty exposing the minor or the adult under guardianship to a serious risk for his/her health.
The protected person’s consent must always be sought, whenever his/her age and intellectual capacity permits such consent. As such, the minor or the adult under guardianship receives appropriate information on his/her state of health and on proposed care.
Abidance by your wishes
Appointed legal representative
You will be asked to appoint, in writing, a person in whom you trust (family member, friend or your general practitioner) to represent you at any time during your stay, by informing the medical secretaries or your care team.
His/her role
This appointed legal representative can, if you ask him/her to do so, help you during your procedures, attend consultations, examinations or accompany you for your hospitalisation.
Furthermore, should, at any time, you not be able to receive information or to express your wishes regarding your medical care, your appointed legal representative will be consulted with regards to your wishes, before any other person.
He/she can also inform the care team of any possible living will you may have prepared.
Who to chose
An adult: family member, friend or GP, can be appointed. The appointed legal representative may be different from the person to notify (person to be contacted if necessary).
How to appoint a legal representative
Appointment in writing is mandatory, by completing the proposed form. Your legal representative is appointed for an indefinite period.
You must absolutely:
- inform him/her of your decision and of his/her role,
- obtain his/her consent (signed form),
- inform him/her that his/her personal contact information will be included in your patient file.
You can also appoint your legal representative via your digitally shared medical file (DMP – Dossier Medical Partagé in French).
Can you change the chosen person?
Yes, you can, at any time and in writing, change your appointed legal representative, by informing him/her, by informing the staff at the Centre François Baclesse and by chosing a different person.
If you would like further information, ask the centre staff for an example of the explanatory document on appointed legal representatives.
Living will
Often, we forget or avoid questions related to end of life. A living will is the expression of your wishes with regards to your end of life, should you not be able to express your will yourself at that time. Hence, you can make your wishes known on the possibility to limit or to stop ongoing treatment.
Preparing your living will can also help to guide your appointed legal representative.
How to prepare a living will
- you must be an adult
- and you must draft a personally signed and dated document including your first name, surname, date and place of birth.
Your living will can be totally or partially revoked at any time.
What to do with your living will once it is drafted
You can keep it yourself or you can give it to:
- your general practitioner
- your appointed legal representative
- a family member or friend
In order to facilitate the transmission and abidance by your wishes, it is important that you let us know where you have kept your living will and to whom you have given a copy.
In the case of hospitalisation at the centre, your living will is kept in your medical file.
You can also record your living will in your digitally shared medical file (DMP -Dossier Médical Partagé).
To help you
Your GP, your appointed legal representative or the staff at the centre can all help you to draft your living will.
The centre can provide you with an explanatory document, with a model of a living will, together with a card indicating ‘I have prepared my living will’, enabling you to inform of the existence of your living will and with whom you have entrusted it.
Ask the carers or the accompanying staff at the ERI department.
You can consult the guide on ‘Why and how to prepare a living will?’ (in French), by the French National Health Authority (HAS) on the following website www.has-sante.fr
Your patient file
Consultation of and access to your file
A medical file is created for each patient coming to the establishment. It includes all your health-related information.
Your medical file is kept in a secure and adapted place within the centre. All medical files are kept for a minimum duration of 20 years.
Upon written request to the CEO of the Centre, including a copy of formal proof of identity, you may access this information directly, or via a designated doctor. You can ask the medical secretaries to provide you with the request form for access to your medical file.
Consultation of this information, within the centre, is free of charge. If you would like copies of your file, reproduction and postage fees will apply.
The information requested via this form can only be provided after a minimum 48-hour period as from the time of request, and they must be provided within a maximum timescale of eight days. Should any requested information date back to a period in excess of five years, this timescale is extended to two months.
Possibility of access to your file by third parties
For minors or for adults under guardianship, the right of acceas to their medical file is granted to their legal representative(s): person(s) with parental authority or guardian(s). The protected person may, nevertheless, request that access to his/her file be exclusively granted to a medical physician.
In the case of death, the patient’s entitled parties, in other words, his/her heirs, and his/her spouse/concubine/partner, may request access to his/her file in order to be informed of the cause of death, to preserve the deceased person’s memory, or to defend his/her rights.
A patient’s legal representatives and entitled parties must provide the documents and information requested with regard to transmission of the medical file (see above), together with proof of their quality of legal representative or entitled party. You can ask the medical secretaries to provide you with the request form for entitled party access to a medical file.
Access to your medical file for external professionals
Your medical file is an essential source of information for ensuring coordination and continuity of your healthcare, both within and outside of the hospital.
The healthcare professionals in your care team at the Centre François Baclesse and the doctor(s) you have personally designated, can have access to all the information included in your medical file.
Via our eHealth tools, you can also authorise your chosen healthcare professionals to be given access to your medical file. The proposed system involves:
- a letter sent by the Centre François Baclesse physician to any external physican you have designated
- access for these physicians to your medical file, via secure Internet
Your digitally shared medical file (or DMP in French). All healthcare facilities and hospitals are encouraged to share essential information from your medical file, including biology test results and medical imaging results. It can also include a patient’s living will and contact information for his/her appointed legal representative. It can be read by emergency department doctors, the general practitioner and other doctors duly authorised by the patient.
Voice your opinion
All patients or members of their family and friends have the right to voice their opinion at the centre, in order to contribute towards improving the quality and the safety of healthcare.
Whenever a shortcoming is observed, your prime contacts are your care team and administrative staff, who are the most appropriate for responding to your questions or requests.
Should you be dissatisfied, your complaint can be taken:
- either orally, and recorded in writing by a staff member who will make sure it is forwarded
- or by letter sent to the CEO
The hospital CEO is committed to responding to your complaint as quickly as possible. Complaints are also forwarded to the users’ committee for information and advice. A mediator can be called upon, on your request or that of the CEO. Both praise and shortcomings are shared with the professionals involved in your care.
The users’ committee (UC)
The Users’ Committee – The UC makes sure that users’ rights are abided by and contributes towards improving the quality of the welcome extended to patients and their families/friends and of their healthcare. It is informed of any complaints or praise forwarded to the management department, of mediation reports, results of satisfaction questionnaires and of your remarks and suggestions.
The UC is actively involved both in the centre’s quality policy and its hospital establishment project.
The list of UC members and contact information for user representatives can be consulted by clicking here. Furthermore, you can call directly upon a user representative, who can, in particular, accompany you during mediation.
Processing of your personal data
Principle
Under the responsibility of the Centre François Baclesse, in charge of data management, your personal information is used legally to:
- provide data on activity to healthcare establishment authorities
- enable the payment of medical procedures by the national social security fund and private medical insurance companies
- provide data to departmental tumour registries in Calvados
- conduct statistical or observation studies (e.g. medical thesis), or for teaching making use of data collected or generated during your care, provided that you have been informed or have given your consent
- provide the necessary information to our external partners within the framework of patient care
Information is transmitted to the physician in charge of the medical information department. All data processing is secure and is conducted in the strictest medical secrecey, in abidance with the European (EU) regulation No. 2016/679 pertaining to the protection of personal data (GDPR) and the French law on Information Processing and Liberties No. 78-17 dated 6 January 1978 and modified by the law No. 2018-493 dated 20 June 2018 pertaining to the protection of personal data.
Upon request, you can obtain:
- access to your data
- correction of any erroneous data
- deletion of data in the case of illicit processing
- transmission of data (portability) collected by the establishment
- limitation of data processing
- objection to the processing of your personal data
- objection to the transmission of data covered by professional secrecy and likely to be used in research settings
Objection to the processing of your data
At any time, you have the right to object to further use of the data included in your file, without being required to justify any such objection, unless a legal obligation rendered any such data processing mandatory.
This objection has no impact on your healthcare or on your relationship with the care team.
In order to exercise your rights, you can contact the Centre François Baclesse Data Protection Officer (DPO):
- By mail: dpo@baclesse.unicancer.fr
- By letter: Centre François Baclesse A l’attention du Délégué à la Protection des Données BP 45026 14076 Caen Cedex 05
Data processing is conducted under control by the French National Commission for Data Processing and Liberties (CNIL). You can contact the CNIL at the following address: Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés 3 Place de Fontenoy TSA 80715 75334 PARIS CEDEX 07 Tel: +33(0)1 53 73 22 22
You can also notify the CNIL of any violation of your rights on the dedicated platform.
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