Access to Your Medical Records

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The Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018 gives every living person (or authorised representative) the right to apply for access to their health records.

A request for a copy of your medical health records must be made to the practice in person at reception. Once we have prepared your notes we will contact you to come in and collect them. At this point you will need to bring in some form of photographic identification (passport, driving licence) and you will be asked to sign a disclaimer before taking the copies away.

We have 30 days to process your request

Costs

Under the Data Protection Act (GDPR) 2018 (Fees and Miscellaneous Provisions) we are no longer able to charge a fee for providing copies of your medical record. However should anyone make repeated requests for the same notes,  which we would deem excessive then charges would be levied to cover cost of materials and admin time.

Exemptions

In some circumstances, the Act permits the data controller to withhold information held in your health record. These rare cases are:

• Where it has been judged that supplying you with the information is likely to cause serious harm to the physical or mental health or condition of you, or any other person.
• Where providing you with access would disclose information relating to or provided by a third person who had not consented to the disclosure. This exemption does not apply where that third person is a clinician involved in your care.

When making your request for access, it would be helpful if you could provide details of the time-periods and aspects of your health record you require (this is optional, but it may help save practice time and resources)

Subject access requests – third parties

Information will only be released to third parties upon receipt of  written consent from the patient.