Bermuda HealthCare Services and Brown-Darrell Clinic will take steps to appeal the judge’s order that would allow their medical files to be reviewed by experts overseas.
In a statement issued this week, former Premier, Dr Ewart Brown said: “I would like the public, especially the patients whose charts were, as we argue, unlawfully removed from BHCS and Brown-Darrell, to know that despite the report in the Royal Gazette dated February 15, 2019, we have NOT abandoned the fight on their behalf.
“Lawyers acting for a large group of the affected patients, with the full support of the legal team acting for the clinics and Dr. Mahesh Reddy, have today lodged an appeal against the ruling permitting the police to provide patient files to overseas experts without their consent. The courts will now decide whether the patient files should remain under seal pending the outcome of this appeal.
“We will continue vociferously to defend the confidentiality of your medical records by all procedural means at our disposal. We must now all trust that the Bermudian judiciary will ultimately rule in your favour,” he added.
The patients are represented by law firm Chancery Legal after 150 of them had their health records seized with additional records of 115 other people, when police raided the two clinics in February in 2017, as part of an ongoing police investigation that has yet to produce formal charges.
The hearing will be held in the Supreme Court on Tuesday, followed by another hearing in March for the court to hear submissions from lawyer Delroy Duncan on behalf of Dr Mahesh Reddy and the two clinics on how the non-medical files were taken and handled by the police in February 2017.
