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Medical Records
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Am I allowed to see them under the Data Protection act? If I can, will it be the actual records or a summariosed version of. Also, is it possible to see medical records of deceased people and how long are they available for?
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If you want to see your medical records as opposed to your GP records, then you should apply at your local hospital. They (the organisation running the hospital) MUST have a procedure to allow you to do this. I would think that you would need to be close to the deceased person and have an excellent reason for seeing their records, again, the hospital would have a procedure for this. If a court case is involved, then your legal representation should request the records I think. The hospital is allowed to charge for this, to cover their costs.. Sometimes really old records are microfiched and then you may be given a summary. Hospitals are allowed to remove items from records where disclosure could be harmful to a third person or to the patient themselves. A good place to start would be your local Citizen's Advice Bureau
Yes, you are allowed to see your medical records. you just have to apply to your local hospital. Be warned tho, they do sometimes charge you and depending on the contents of your notes, you may have to view them under the supervision of a doctor. Also, you can ask for them to be translated in non-medical terminology so you can understand them! It is a lot harder to view the records of a deceased person (even though they keep them forever as no record is ever destroyed). You need lots of different forms of identification and sometimes even then they refuse. The best way of getting those is through a lawyer. But you'll probably need to have a really good reason why you want to view some one else's notes as you can usually only do this because of legal reasons.
sorry, d+dwidow, Its not true to say that records are never destroyed. The requirement is for records to be kept for seven years if an adult, or seven years from the date of reaching eighteen if a child. After that, records may be destroyed by secure means although there are often reasons for retaining them. Records may also be destroyed if they are badly damaged, for instance by a flood or a fire
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