Clinical Negligence – Your Records

Clinical negligence can be established by accessing your hospital or doctors’ surgery medical records under the Data Protection Act 1998. Usually you will be asked to complete their special forms to access their records. They are required to comply with your request within 40 days.

Commonly there is a charge of £10 maximum to give access and charges of up to £50 including the £10 access fee for the provision of copies. Access can be refused if in the opinion of the record holder disclosure would cause serious harm to your physical or emotional health. Parts of the records can be redacted for the same reason. You can ask the record holder to insert a corrective statement in your records.

If you are not happy with the response to your request, you can complain to the Data Protection Registrar. If you are unhappy about the response to your request for access you can make a complaint through the NHS complaints procedure or to the Information Commissioners Officer who has the authority to demand the destruction, removal or blocking of erroneous information.

Law Society Clinical Negligence Panel member , David Dickie, has dealt with many medical negligence claims over the last 20 years.

Ring David on freephone 08000 116666 or send an e-mail to him at d.dickie@timms-law.com