The Data Protection Act covers certain issues relating to health records and medical professionals. The main issues are covered below.
The Freedom of Information Act gives you the right to access official information from public medical establishments.
Health records
A health record is any record of information relating to someone's physical or mental health that has been made by (or on behalf of) a health professional. This could be anything from the notes made by a GP in your local surgery to results of an MRI scan or X-rays.
Health records are extremely personal and sensitive. They can be held electronically or as paper files, and are kept by a range of different health professionals both in the NHS and the private sector.
For the purpose of the Data Protection Act, a registered health professional can be one of the following people:
- A medical practitioner - this could be a GP, consultant or hospital doctor
- A dentist
- An optician
- A pharmaceutical chemist
- A nurse, midwife or health visitor
- An osteopath
- A chiropractor
- A clinical psychologist, child psychotherapist or speech therapist
- A music therapist
- A scientist employed by a health service body as head of department
- Anyone registered as a member of a profession to which the Health Professionals Order 2001
How can I obtain my records?
The Data Protection Act gives you the right to see your health records.
To do so, write to the person or organisation concerned clearly describing the information you want. If the records are held on computer, you can be charged up to £10. If the records are manual or a mixture of manual and computer records, you can be charged up to £50. You should receive a reply to your request within 40 days.
Further information is available from the Department of Health website.
In the future, health records in England will be stored and shared electronically. You can read more about this on the NHS electronic care records page.
What can I do if I'm not satisfied?
If you're unhappy about the way your request has been treated, you can complain to us, provided you have exhausted any internal review procedures
Further information
Our good practice note how does the Data Protection Act apply to professional opinions? aims to inform organisations and practitioners - including health professionals - about some of the data protection issues that arise in relation to the information they record. This note also contains information of general interest to members of the public.