Access your medical records

Medical records hold information about you. They are also sometimes called health records.

You'll have separate records for any NHS service you go to including your GP surgery, hospital, dentist or opticians.

How to get your record depends on which record it is.

The right of access

You have the right to access your own personal information.  This right includes making you aware of what information we hold along with the opportunity to satisfy you that we are using your information fairly and legally. 

You have the right to obtain:

• Confirmation that your personal information is being held or used by us
• Access to your personal information
• Additional information about how we use your personal information

Although we must provide this information free of charge, if your request is considered unfounded or excessive, or if you request the same information more than once, we may charge a reasonable fee. 

If you would like to access your personal information, you can do this by either

• Printing off and completing our Medical Record Application form from the link below and handing it into our Reception Desk, where you request will be processed:

        Medical Record Application.doc

• or you can attend the Practice in person, where you willbe asked to complete our Medical Records Application form.

Once we have details of your request and you have provided us with enough information for us to locate your personal information, we will respond to your request within one month (30 days) of receiving your request. However if your request is complex we may take longer, by up to two months, to respond.  If this is the case we will tell you and explain the reason for the delay.

The right to rectification 

If the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete you have the right to have this corrected.

If it is agreed that your personal information is inaccurate or incomplete we will aim to amend your records accordingly, normally within one month, or within two months where the request is complex.  However, we will contact you as quickly as possible to explain this further if the need to extend our timescales applies to your request.  Unless there is a risk to patient safety, we can restrict access to your records to ensure that the inaccurate or incomplete information is not used until amended.