Patient Access to Medical Records

Access to Health Records under the Data Protection Act 1998

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 a copy of your medical health records held at Langley House Surgery should be made in writing using this form.

The practice 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.

Your request should be fulfilled within 30 days.

In some circumstances, the Act permits the practice 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, or;
• 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 and reduce the cost of your access request).

If the practice determines that the request is "manifestly unfounded or excessive", the practice reserves the right to charge a reasonable fee for the provision of health records.

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 may not all 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.

We do not normally post out copies of medical records to patients to ensure they remain secure; patients are requested to collect from Langley House or the Bosham Surgery and must bring evidence of  identity with them (like a passport, driving licence).

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.