Third party registration

I’m registering 

How do I register a third party?

In the article IV of the Law of Patients’ Right, a patient has the right to be represented.

Two scenarios can arise:

  • Minor children
  • Of age patients who, according to the healthcare practitioner, are de facto not capable to express their will (e.g. a person who is in a coma).

The legal representative has the same rights as the patient. He can access, via the secure portal of the Brussels Health Network, the documents of the patient of which he is the legal representative who are shared on the health networks.

1. Registration of minor children

To access the shared health record of your minor child(ren), you need to register as a legal representative. How?

  1. Complete and sign this form.
  2. Send it to info@abrumet.be along with a double-sided copy of the minor’s identity card and your own.

The legal representative has access to the shared file of a child under 12 years of age registered with the Brussels Health Network.

For children aged between 12 and 16, only healthcare professionals with a therapeutic relationship with the child have access to the child’s computerized health record. The legal representative can always exercise this right and consult the contents of the documents in paper format by making a request to the care provider.

With regard to registering the consent of minors, from the age of sixteen minors have the option of registering their consent themselves. Under the age of sixteen, this right belongs to their legal representative.

  • If the minor child has an ISI or ISI+ card: his/her legal representative can ask his/her doctor, hospital admissions department, mutual insurance companies and pharmacists to register the child’s consent.
  • If the minor child has neither an eID card nor an ISI/ISI+ card: please complete the pdf form and return it to Abrumet’s administrative department

Why is access to documents denied to the legal representatives of patients aged 12 to 16?

The Brussels Health Network is committed to ensuring the secure exchange of medical data while strictly adhering to patient rights legislation and the GDPR. As such, the Brussels Health Network never accesses the content of medical documents but acts as a technical subcontractor for healthcare professionals.

In line with the spirit of the Patient Rights Act, access to a patient’s data is granted by the healthcare professional who generated the information. This professional is the only one authorized to determine whether the legal conditions for access are met (e.g., no data concerning third parties, protection of the patient’s interests, application of a therapeutic exception, prevention of pressure from insurers, etc.).

For minors, the law allows healthcare professionals to decide if a young person demonstrates sufficient maturity and is “capable of reasonably assessing their own interests.” In such cases, certain medical actions may be performed without parental consent or knowledge.

However, the Brussels Health Network currently lacks the technical tools to allow healthcare professionals to flag such specific situations and block access for legal representatives when necessary. Moreover, the legal framework remains insufficiently explicit on these issues.

Given this ambiguity and at the request of healthcare professionals, access to data for patients aged 12 to 16 has been temporarily restricted on the Brussels Health Network. This preventive measure aims to safeguard the confidentiality and rights of minor patients until an official position from the authorities is established.

From the age of 16, young people manage their access to the network themselves.

We hope this explanation helps clarify why access to data for minors aged 12 to 16 is currently limited on the Brussels Health Network.

2. Registration of a person who is mentally incapacitated to make a decision

In the absence of a legal representative appointed by the adult patient, the patient’s legislative rights provides that where the patient is mentally incompetent to make a decision, the administrator of the person, his close spouse or parent may have to make a decision on the person’s behalf (in priority order provided in the law). As part of the shared digital health records, this means that the decision to consent to data sharing could be performed by one of the persons referred to above.

  • If the patient has an ISI or ISI + card, the patient’s legal representative may ask the GP, the admissions department of a hospital, mutual or pharmacists to record the consent of the patient.
  • If the patient has neither an eID identity card nor ISI / ISI + card, please complete the pdf form and return it to the administrative department of Abrumet.

If the patient is not incapacitated anymore, he or she can obviously withdraw consent at any time.

3. Declare a person of trust

When the patient experiences a loss of autonomy and has difficulty managing his or her medical file, a person or persons of trust may be nominated. This will help in managing the shared health folder but only the patient themselves can take decisions affecting him of her. The identity of the person of trust must be registered on the Brussels Health Network.

To do this, the patient and trustworthy person must have registered their consent.

  • Via the Brussels Health Network
    1. The patient logs in to the private space with his identity card and pin code or with its Itsme account.
    2. In the profile section, clic on “trusted person” button and fill in the ID number and the card number of the chosen “trustworhty person”
  • You can also use a pdf document to send to the administrative department of Abrumet.
  • Some hospital admission services allow registration of a link to the person of trust.

4. Registration of a foreign nationals

  • Foreign citizens officially residing in Belgium who, like Belgian citizens, possess an EID card. They can therefore also give their consent and have access to the Brussels Health Network.Choose the registration of consent method that suits you best.
  • Those not yet considered as official residents in Belgium but are receiving social benefits were given a bis number by the Crossroads Bank for social security .  This number can also be used to record consent.

If the first 6 digits of the NISS number does not match your birth date, complete the pdf form and return it to the administrative department of Abrumet.

Partners

The Brussels Health Network brings together all public and private Brussels hospitals as well as the French and Dutch speaking associations of general practitioners in Brussels (FAMGB and BHAK). We are the ideal partner for any project related to e-health in the Brussels region.