Strengthening the Rights of Women After Childbirth and Other Patient Groups: Monitoring and Advocacy Regarding Access to Medical Records

Access to medical records is a key prerequisite for patients to exercise their rights, including the right to seek redress when those rights have been violated. Despite existing legal guarantees under Slovak law, patients face various barriers in practice. These barriers stem from inconsistent approaches of healthcare providers, lack of information, and an unequal power balance between institutions and patients — creating obstacles to justice and representing a form of social injustice.

Women’s Circles has been providing free consultations to women since 2012. Its long-term practice shows repeated cases where hospitals deny women access to their records, prevent them from photographing documents, charge unlawful fees, provide incomplete extracts, or insist on in-person collection despite requests for postal delivery. In one case, a hospital required a patient to sign a commitment not to share information from her records with third parties — effectively preventing her from consulting a lawyer or seeking a second medical opinion. Many women find this process so exhausting that they abandon their original intention to file a complaint altogether.

These barriers disproportionately affect vulnerable groups — women after childbirth, women from minorities, and refugees from Ukraine, for whom navigating the Slovak healthcare system is particularly challenging. The experience of Women’s Circles indicates that this is not a matter of isolated failures, but a systemic problem. At the same time, practice also shows that in some hospitals the process works well — patients receive complete documentation without delays or fees. These examples of good practice will be highlighted and used in advocacy as evidence that the correct approach is possible and achievable.

The project pursues three interconnected objectives through six key activities implemented between May and December 2026.

Monitoring — The project will map the practice of providing access to medical records in 47 hospitals with maternity wards across Slovakia using website monitoring and freedom of information requests — methods used by Women’s Circles since 2015. Where needed, the project will engage its supporter community.

Research — The project will conduct 3 focus groups with women, patient organisation representatives and other stakeholders to identify barriers and good practices. Based on the findings, the project will develop questions for a representative quantitative survey with 1,000 respondents, carried out by a reputable research agency.

Publication and presentation — The results, together with a summary of the legal framework, will be published in a freely accessible online PDF. The project will organise a public event for patient organisations, policymakers and supervisory authorities to present findings and open a dialogue on systemic change. It will also issue a press release and reach out to media.

Individual consultations — Members of the Women’s Circles team will provide free consultations in Slovak, Hungarian, Ukrainian and English to at least 70 women and other patients on their rights and options for seeking redress.

Awareness-raising — The project will publish 8 blog posts, send 8 newsletters to 1,200 subscribers, and share 64 posts in Slovak and 16 in Ukrainian on social media. Awareness-raising will directly motivate women to assert their rights, creating pressure for change in hospital behaviour.

Networking and advocacy — The project will build a coalition of at least 5 patient organisations, engaging them from the outset. Project findings and examples of good practice will serve as arguments in dialogue with hospitals, the Healthcare Surveillance Authority, the Ministry of Health and other relevant institutions.

The project will deliver concrete results at three levels.

For individual patients — At least 70 women and other patients will receive direct support through individual consultations in four languages, gaining the knowledge and confidence needed to assert their rights and seek redress. Through social media and newsletters, the project expects at least 1,000 people to actively engage with its awareness campaigns. Vulnerable groups will benefit most directly: women after childbirth, women from different countries, minorities and refugees from Ukraine face the greatest barriers in accessing medical records and are least equipped to navigate the system independently.

For the system — The monitoring and research report will provide the first systematic evidence base on the practice of providing access to medical records in Slovak hospitals with maternity wards. This evidence will serve as a basis for advocacy towards relevant institutions — the Healthcare Surveillance Authority, the Public Defender of Rights, the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights and the Ministry of Health — with the aim of improving methodological guidelines, supervisory practice and potentially legislation. The project will produce at least 5 public advocacy outputs and implement 1 coordinated campaign. Examples of good practice identified by the project will serve as proof that lawful and accessible practice is achievable everywhere.

For civil society — A coalition of at least 5 patient organisations will be established, strengthening the long-term capacity of civil society to advocate collectively for patients’ rights beyond this project. The findings, tools and networks created will remain freely available on the Women’s Circles website after the project ends, serving women, patient organisations, media and institutions alike. Women’s Circles has demonstrated through previous work that combining systematic monitoring with individual complaints produces visible results — and the project continues that long-term effort.