Medical secrecy: what is it?

Verified 26 November 2025 - Public Service / Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

Medical secrecy covers all the information that the healthcare professional has about you : your state of health (diagnosis, treatment...), your identity, what you entrusted to him, what the professional saw, heard, understood... We tell you what you need to know about medical secrecy (professional secrecy) and how to file a complaint in case of violation.

Every professional who knows or monitors your health must respect medical confidentiality.

This applies in particular to the following professionals:

  • Doctor
  • Nurse
  • Physical therapist
  • Psychologist
  • Social Assistant
  • Speech therapist
  • Pharmacist
  • Dentist
  • Podiatrist
  • Medical student on internship.

Thus, a healthcare professional who has information about you must not communicate them to others.

A healthcare professional cannot communicate medical data to another person even if that person must also respect professional secrecy (example: the tax administration).

Medical confidentiality is a general and absolute obligation.

Healthcare professionals who follow you may exchange between them the information needed to treat you (shared medical secret).

However, your consent is necessary and must be collected by any means (including dematerialized) if the health professionals are not part of the same care team.

FYI  

The healthcare professionals to whom you have authorized access to your Health area (shared medical record) shall be bound by medical confidentiality.

Cases where the healthcare professional has to provide certain information

There are situations in which the health professional must communicate certain information.

Thus, it must in particular:

  • Declaring births
  • Declaring Deaths
  • Notify health authorities of certain serious or contagious diseases that require urgent intervention
  • Establish medical certificates for psychiatric care without consent
  • Make a medical statement to the public prosecutor when setting up a safeguarding justice
  • Establish certificates for occupational accidents and diseases
  • Provide information to the administration for military and civilian disability or retirement pension records
  • Forward to the expert the documents he holds on the person who feels he is the victim of damage related to prevention, diagnosis or care (medical accidents, HIV, asbestos...).

Cases where the healthcare professional may communicate certain information

There are situations in which the health professional is authorized to communicate certain information.

Thus, it can in particular :

  • Report to public prosecutor the abuse or deprivation inflicted on an adult, with his consent
  • Report to the public prosecutor the ill-treatment, abuse or deprivation inflicted on an adult, without his consent, in certain situations (person who is not in a state to protect himself because of his age or physical or mental disability)
  • Report to the public prosecutor any ill-treatment, abuse or deprivation inflicted on a minor
  • Transmit information related to the situation of a minor in danger or at risk of danger the Information of Concern Collection, Processing and Evaluation Cell (CRIP). He can also do it with the hospital cellARS: titleContent responsible for collecting, monitoring and processing reports of abuse of vulnerable adults?
  • Report to the prefect (in Paris, to the police prefect) the dangerous nature of a person who he knows has a weapon or intends to acquire a weapon.
Who shall I contact

If the minor refuses to have his or her legal representative consulted, the doctor or midwife may not ask for the consent of the legal representative if the medical procedure is necessary to safeguard the minor's health.

However, the doctor or midwife should in a 1er endeavor to obtain the consent of the minor.

In the event that the minor maintains his opposition, the doctor or midwife may implement the preventive action, screening, diagnosis, treatment or intervention. In this case, the minor is accompanied by an adult of his choice.

In case of diagnosis or severe prognosis, your family, loved ones or trusted person can be informed of your health status to support you.

However, you can oppose it.

The simplified health questionnaire, filled in by you, allows the insurer to assess your health status to determine:

  • The risk to be covered
  • The level of guarantees
  • And the proposed pricing.

The insurer cannot require your attending physician to complete this simplified health questionnaire. However, your doctor can assist you with this information.

Thus, it is not the physician's responsibility to complete, sign, stamp or countersign this simplified health questionnaire.

The employer cannot require information from you on your state of health.

An occupational physician must not disclose to an employer the information that he or she collects during a medical examination.

Your medical record is also covered by medical confidentiality and should not be disclosed to your employer.

In the event of death, the spouse and the rights holders can get medical information to know the causes of death of the deceased, defending his memory or have their rights recognized.

In addition, medical confidentiality does not prevent the information concerning a deceased person necessary for the care of a person who may be the subject of a genetic examination from being delivered to the doctor.

However, the deceased must not have opposed it during his lifetime.

Please note

In case of death of your minor child, you have access to all the information concerning him. However, you do not have access to medical decisions for which your child has refused to consult you.

You can lodge a complaint if you believe that a professional has breached his obligation of medical confidentiality.

On site

You can contact a police station or gendarmerie brigade of your choice.

Who shall I contact

The complaint is transmitted to the public prosecutor by the police or gendarmerie.

By mail

You can file a complaint with the public prosecutor.

To do this, you need to send a mail to court of the place of the offense or of the domicile of the offender.

Who shall I contact

Your mail should include the following:

  • Your marital status and full contact details (address and telephone number)
  • Detailed account of the facts, date and place of the offense
  • Name of the alleged perpetrator if you know him (otherwise, the complaint will be filed against X)
  • Name and address of any witnesses to the offense
  • Description and provisional or definitive estimate of injury
  • Your proof documents: medical certificates, work stoppages, photographs, videos, various invoices, statements...

You can use the following mail template:

File a complaint with the public prosecutor

You can send your complaint by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt (preferably), by simple letter or by followed letter.

You can also file your complaint directly at the reception desk of the court.

In any case, a receipt is sent to you as soon as the public prosecutor's office has registered your complaint.

The presence of a lawyer is not required for the filing of complaints and throughout the proceedings until the trial before the court. However, you can get the assistance of a lawyer if you wish.

Please note

If you don't have the financial resources to pay for this professional, you can obtain legal aid.

You can also send mail at departmental council of the order of physicians.

Your letter must state that you are making a complaint.

Who shall I contact

For obtain compensation for the damage suffered, you can bring the health professional before the civil court.

Violation of medical secrecy, except in authorized cases, shall be punished by a maximum penalty of 1 year in prison and €15,000 of a fine.

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