[Evaluation of the Dutch Medical Treatment Act, five years after implementation: subjective and poorly substantiated]

Five years after its implementation, the Dutch Medical Treatment Act, which regulates the doctor-patient contract, was evaluated. Two subjects were investigated: the right of the patient to be informed and to give informed consent and the way physicians deal with personal information. From a methodological point of view, this appraisal was very disappointing. At best, the evaluation report is descriptive but not evaluative: no comparative study was carried out before and after the law was implemented to ascertain effects. The Act is difficult to evaluate in practice as its goal, improving the legal position of the patient, is dogmatic. Its regulations on informed consent and agreement as well as the rules of law concerning the use of patient data for clinical research, have at times proved to be impractical even though such legal directives appear to be reasonable. The problems addressed by this law should be more widely debated and be subjected to a far more rigorous validation process.