Obtaining health records
How We Can Help
We can tell you what you need and how to get it. If necessary we can apply to the Court for an order for disclosure of medical records. To date, all the applications we have made to the Court for the pre-action disclosure of health records have been successful. It is, however, unusual for an application to the Court to be made as most healthcare providers will respond promptly to an appropriate request for disclosure.
The Process
The Data Protection Act 1998 permits patients on making an adequate written request to be supplied with a copy of any information held on a computer and to be supplied with copies of any paper records.
The Data Protection Act covers all health records and the term "health record" is thought to include x-rays.
The cost of obtaining such information is £10 for records held in electronic format and up to £50 for records in a manual format. There is no provision for additional photocopying and postal charges.
When a clinical negligence claim is investigated it is important that all clinical notes and records are obtained from all sources. Even though the maximum fee any one hospital can charge is £50, if a patient has received treatment at a number of hospitals the cost can mount up.
Most hospitals have prescribed application forms to complete when an application for access to health records is made, but when an application is made by a solicitor, the request is made in accordance with the pre-action protocol governing clinical disputes.