Access to Health Records under the General Data Protection Regulations 2018

The General Data Protection Regulations of 2018 in conjunction with the Data Protection Act 2018 gives every living person, or an authorised representative, the right to apply for access to their health records.

A request for your medical health records held at Parkfield Medical Centre should be made in writing via a subject access request form to the Medical Records Clerk. (please contact the practice for alternative methods of obtaining access if you are unable to make a request in writing). Such requests for information may be subject to an administration charge.

We would like to encourage patients to register for our online service whereby patients can view their medical records at any time and these will be continually updated.

There is no fee associated with providing access to your medical records. You or your representative will be asked to bring in a form of identification when collecting or viewing the records.

The data controller is not obliged to comply with your access request unless they have sufficient information to identify you and to locate the information held about you.

Once the data controller has all the required information, your request should be fulfilled within 28 days (in exceptional circumstances where it is not possible to comply within this period you will be informed of the delay and given a timescale for when your request is likely to be met).

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 as outlined in the request form.

If you are using an authorised representative, you need to be aware that in doing so they may gain access to all health records concerning you, which not all may be relevant. If this is a concern, you should inform your representative of what information you wish them to specifically request when they are applying for access.

If you have any complaints about any aspect of your application to obtain access to your health records, you should first discuss this with the clinician concerned. If this proves unsuccessful, you can make a complaint through the NHS Complaints Procedure by contacting the practice formally.

Further information about the NHS Complaints Procedure is available on the  ‘How to complain to the NHS’ page on the NHS website.

Alternatively you can contact the Information Commissioners Office (responsible for governing Data Protection compliance). Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Tel: 03031 231113 or 01625 545745

Website: www.ico.org.uk